Word – Cannot modify top/bottom space for header/footer in LibreOffice, and disabled Header/Footer after export to Office 2007

headerslibreoffice-writermarginsmicrosoft-word-2007

I have written my Thesis in LibreOffice. Everything is fine, but my University requires to provide the Thesis in a very specific format. In LibreOffice I cannot replicate the "From Top/From Bottom" space for header/footer. As a result the template is wrong and I need to fix it.

So, I saved the document as MS Word 2003 (from the LibreOffice) and opened the *.doc from my Office 2007 Word. In MS office I cannot change the page boundaries and to edit/change the Header/Footer. Specifically, the Edit Header/Edit Footer options are disabled on the Ribbon.

How can I solve that?

Best Answer

If i understand correctly, you need to set the margin between the page border and the top of the Header to a certain value. You can achieve this easily in LibreOffice Writer, so you don't need to manipulate the document in MS Word.

There are different spacing values you can set:

  • On the Page tab, you can set the Top/Bottom margins of the entire page. If you have a Header / Footer enabled, this is the margin between the physical "paper border" and the top border of the header) / the bottom border of the footer respectively. The Header / Footer is placed inside the margins defined on the page tab:

    Page Margins 1

  • On the Header / Footer tab, you can set the height of the header / footer and the space between header / footer and main content. Indirectly, these values determine the margin of the main page content to the "physical" page border:

    Header margins

    Footer margins

If there are certain, defined margins required, make sure not to choose Dynamic Space / Auto fit height on the Header / Footer tab.

So, the "big picture" looks like this (light yellow: main content; blue: header; green: footer):

enter image description here

1a , b, c and d are set on the Page tab; 2a/2b and 3a/3b on the Header / Footer tab respectively. The top margin of the "main content" area is the sum of 1c + 2a + 2b; its bottom margin vice versa 1d + 3a + 3b.

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