Excel: right-aligned headers/footers don’t respect page margins? 1

[Wizdar]

Ran across this today. I had to move a right-aligned header because it printed over the stationary logo. Moving the right margin didn’t move the header or footer at all, which I thought was really odd.

I ended up moving the header into the spreadsheet. Was that the only solution?

What if I needed to move the footer as well? You can’t assign “rows to repeat at the bottom” so I would be hosed, right?

 

[dcompto]

It is a known (by Microsoft) limitation for Excel 2000 or older. I don't know if they have fixed it in newer versions.

The header and footer ALWAYS use a left and right margin of 0.75 inch. Therefore, left/right- aligned text in the header or footer always begins 0.75 inches from the left/right edge of the page, regardless of the margin settings.

Microsoft's workaround allows you to to create wider (although not narrower) margins by adding extra spaces ("padding") to the header or footer.

To pad the LEFT header or footer, you can add REGULAR SPACES before the text. However, because the RIGHT header or footer ignores trailing spaces, you must use NONBREAKING SPACES.

To enter a nonbreaking space, press and hold down ALT and type 0160 on the numeric keypad. Of course, NUM LOCK must be turned on in order for this procedure to work. Thank goodness copy and paste works in the customize header/footer dialog box so you can enter 2 or 3 nonbreaking spaces, copy, then paste as many times as you need!

Hope this workaround meets your needs.

 

[Wizdar]

Nope, they didn’t fix it in 03, the version I have. I’ve come to the conclusion that Excel is the bastard stepchild of Microsoft. Going from 97 to 2000 to 02 and 03, I’ve noticed only cosmetic changes, most notably purdy colors in 03. All the other Office programs have been improved considerably, with the notable exception of Word’s Mail Merge, which now requires a certification course.

Although, to be fair, being to put an updatable path in the footer (XP/02) has been a big plus, since we use that extensively to identify where a file is hiding.

I did try adding spaces to push the text to the left. Of course it didn’t work, and I had some unkind words directed at Bill.

Many thanks for the nonbreaking spaces suggestion.