Dynamic text fields in Word header

Version: Should work at least with any version from Office 97 and forward.

In this article I’m going to show you how to get dynamically updated section or chapter headers in Word. This will allow you to create a nice looking document that is easy to navigate for the reader. We will work the example through step-by-step.

1. Go to the starting section (the content) of your document. Select File à Page setup and the Layout tab. Check the box Different odd and even and select Apply to à This point forward. Click OK (see picture 1).

Picture 1.

2. Select View à Header and footer, and then Insert à Field. In the dialog box that appears you scroll down to StyleRef in the Field names list. A new list called Style name will appear under Field properties (see picture 2). This list contains a list of style formats, and here you select Heading 1 (provided that your section titles are formatted as such).

Picture 2.

3. Check the box next to Search from the bottom of page to top if you want the displayed item to be the last one present on the page. There are some other options such as paragraph number and so on that you can chose if you want. Click OK. The chapter/section title should now appear in your header like in picture 3. It will also change automatically in all instances if you change your title (you might need to update it by pressing F9).

Picture 3.

4. This step is optional. If you want altering text on odd and even pages you just go to the next page in the document, view the Header and footer, de-select Link to previous (see picture 4). Insert some other item of your choice, like document title or author name, following the procedure in step 2.

Picture 4.

Keywords: dynamic text, MS Word, header, text field, automatic chapter

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