Word: Header row won’t repeat
March 26, 2010A client sent me a Word document to fix. One of the problems they were having was that the header row on a table would NOT repeat, no matter how many times they turned on or off the setting.
The first thing I noticed was that when I tried to select the header, the preceding paragraph marker was also selected. That was strange, but it was a clue that lead me to the solution.
Paragraph marker is also selected when Header Row is selected
The table had been set up with Text Wrapping turned on (Around). As soon as I changed it to None, I could select the header row independently of the preceding paragraph marker AND the header row repeated as it should.
Solved!
You can find the text wrapping option here (you need to select the table first):
- Word 2003: Table > Table Properties > Table tab, Text Wrapping section, select None.
- Word 2007: Table Tools > Layout tab > Table group, Properties icon, Table tab, Text Wrapping section, select None.
Turn off text wrapping to let the Header Row repeat
I don’t know why text wrapping affects the header row repeat function, but it does. Seems strange to me — if you have a table that goes on to a new page, then surely repeating the header row should be totally independent of any text wrapping.
See also:
- ‘Header row won’t repeat revisited’ for another reason why: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/word-header-row-wont-repeat-revisited/
 |
Has this tip helped you? saved you time? saved your skin? You can thank me by clicking on the cup and buying me a coffee. (An E-Junkie shopping cart page will open where you can pay for my coffee via PayPal.) |
Hi Rhonda
You may also find that the line before the table had “Keep with next” chosen in the paragraph formatting. Which is a good thing because it keeps the heading with the table, but needs to be turned off to fix the issue first. Often just clicking on the line before the table and changing to “Normal” style can help.
cheers
Natalie
This was a wonderful tip! It had been frustrating me for ages!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!
This tip saved my day!
Ditto – you have just saved me a huge amount of wasted time & frustration! Thank you so much!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!
[...] But no matter what I did, it just wouldn’t repeat on the next and subsequent pages. I looked for a selected paragraph mark above it, but there was nothing [...]
Mahalo! This saved me a great deal of frustration!
Great – worked for me. Don’t know why this commonly seen problem since the very first versions of word hasn’t had better rigour introduced into Word 2010 so it works properly. I mean – if text wrapping stuffs up repeating header row, why not advise user of this problem when the user is selecting that option??
Maybe the response is that famous tech line: “That’s not a bug – that’s the functionality!”
This worked for me – very much appreciate the tip!
Your “solution” works for the same situation in Word 2010!!
Just had this problem the other day. This didn’t work for my problem but found something that did. Figured out that the second page of the table was wrapping into the page header. Tried everything to reconstruct that table to display outside of the header, with no luck.
Figuring the problem must reside in the section properties, I (1) cut the section content, (2) deleted all surrounding section breaks, (3) re-inserted new section breaks and formatting, then pasted the content back into the new section. Voilà! Finally got it!
I’ve also seen tables flow off the page into nothingness — they won’t flow on to the next page as they should. If you check the table properties for such a table, you’ll probably find that it has Text wrapping set to Around. By selecting None instead, the table will bounce back on to the page and flow correctly on to the next page.
–Rhonda
You saved my day,
Thank you
You rock!!!
Thank you! Thank you!! Helped me!
I can not thank you enough!!!!!!!!
Thank you. Even though Text Wrapping “none” was selected I clicked on it again and presto!! – the header repeated.
Karon
I found that in Word 2010 the header won’t repeat when formatted to “multiple” line spacing (under Paragraph). Changed that to single, and the problem vanished.
Thank you for that! Although I feel I know Word relatively well, it still gets me stumped every now and again!!
really
thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i felt that if there is somebody who save your life and wana say for him THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Fantastic! I went to three other sites for help on this problem, and none work until yours!
Thanks a lot.
Thanks, good tip.
Thank you for the help. However this did not resolve my issue, so I’ll pass along what i did to resolve it.
1- I selected the whole table (using the Alt+Num5)
2- Press the Ctrl+x to cut the table
3- Create a new document
4- On the new document, press Ctrl+V to paste the table
5- Verify that you can enable the Header Row as per this newsletter
6- On the old document, open the “Outline View”
7- Go to the last line on the document
8- Go to your new document and copy the table (see step 2)
9- Go to the old document, place the cursor in the last line and press Ctrl+V to paste the table
10- You should now have the header row across multiple pages.
thank you so much for this. it worked! i really appreciate you taking the time to share this piece of advice. thanks again.
Thank you so much for this tip, it has been bothering me for years and I would never have figured this out on my own!
Heading Rows Repeat for 2010????
Hi Karen
The steps should be the same as for Word 2007.
–Rhonda
Thank you!! Worked for me and stopped me fiddling around with my document any longer. :-)
OMG — thank you! Saved my day!
Thank you so so much. This was been driving me crazy the last day….
Thank you, I spent hours to try to fix this. It is the same procedure with Word 2010. Merci beaucoup.
There’s one more (at least one) method worth checking: select whole table (by clicking on it’s handle in upper-left corner), then in table properties UNCHECK header row repeating. Back to table – select 1st row only and in table properties CHECK header row repeating.
Works (for me at least) when this solution doesn’t help (probably some other problem -large table c&p from other document with merged cells – c&p into wordpad and back as other solutions suggest ends up with total mess)
Thanks (g) your method worked for me! None of the others did.
Thank you so much. This was incredibly helpful.
This was extremely helpful. We struggled for a half hour, then I decided to google this query, and hey presto! it worked!
Thanks man ayri fik
GREAT TIP! This has been driving me nuts forever.
Thank YOU!!!!!!!!! I have had trouble with this for such a long time! AWESOME!!!!
we tried all of these things but it didn’t work :(
my colleague has a table within a table though – so don’t know if this makes a difference. when I c&p teh table to a new document it was fine…
The below method worked for me when none of the others would and it was so much easier too. Thanks to the person who posted this above!
:)
There’s one more (at least one) method worth checking: select whole table (by clicking on it’s handle in upper-left corner), then in table properties UNCHECK header row repeating. Back to table – select 1st row only and in table properties CHECK header row repeating.
Works (for me at least) when this solution doesn’t help (probably some other problem -large table c&p from other document with merged cells – c&p into wordpad and back as other solutions suggest ends up with total mess)
Thank you! Thank you!! I had been fighting with this for quite some time. This was an easy fix. :)
Thank you, this worked for me :-)
Thank you so much for posting this…..I was getting very frustrated and this fixed it! :)
Joining the many thank you messages.
[...] Header row won’t repeat? Try this: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/word-header-row-wont-repeat/ [...]
You just saved me many hours of “dumb searching” & time; I will gladly buy you a cuppa java; have one on me too!
thanks! I’ve been trying to fix this for 2 hours and now it works!
Thank you for this! I have been struggling with this issue and never could figure it out!
Relief – thank you! but why is so complicated in the first place?!
Great tip!
OMG. You’ve been a great help! Thanks~
Thank you!
Genius. Thank you so much
Yup workerd perfectly!!!!!!
Thank You so much, working on a requirements document and using a table lifted from another doc. This issue was driving me CRAZY!!!
Dana J.
York, SC
Thanks – This was very helpful.
Thanks for the Tip! It worked wonderfully
Of course, Microsoft “help” was totally useless. I would have been here until midnight, banging my head against the wall – Thanks SO Much!!! You are my hero!!!!!
Doesnt work for my table. wraparound is off. simply wont repeat.