Having headers and footers on your slide allows you to include additional information, such as relevant dates, company information, citations, or author information. This article shows you how to add headers and footers to your slides in all versions of PowerPoint.
- In the ribbon bar, go to the Insert tab. Then, select Header & Footer in the “Text” section.
Click Header & Footer to access more functions. - A Header and Footer dialog box will appear containing two tabs. Choose Slide and check the Footer box. Type the information you want to appear in the footer.
Click the Check Box, then type your footer. Note: The “Notes and Handouts” tab allows you to include both header and footer when printing PowerPoint slides. For more information, check out the article on how to print PowerPoint slides with a header, footer, and speaker notes.
- If you want additional information to appear on the slide, select Date and time and Page number.
Select both checkboxes. - Click Apply to All to display the date, slide number, and footer on every slide in the presentation. Select Apply if you want to display this information on the active slide only.
Apply to All command allows you to apply the footer on every slide. - The footer and any other information you have selected will appear at the bottom of the slide.
The Date and Slide number will also appear at the bottom of the slide.
How to insert a header
PowerPoint does not provide a tool to insert a header on slides automatically. This option must be inserted manually on the slide using a text box. Follow these steps to add a header to your slides:
- Since there are likely multiple slides in your presentation, we will use the Slide Master tool to insert a header text box. The Slide Master tool is used to edit PowerPoint slides using only one slide. In this instance, the Slide Master tool will apply the same text box to every slide. Go to the View tab, and select Slide Master in the “Master Views” section.
Click Slide Master. - Slide Master view will appear. In the slide panel on the left, scroll up and select the first slide.
Any object inserted into the first slide is automatically inserted into every slide in the presentation. - Next, insert a text box for the header. Go to Insert and select Text Box in the “Text” section.
Ensure that the first slide in the Slide Master is selected, then click the Text Box tool. - Click and drag your cursor over an appropriate area at the top of the slide. This action will draw your text box, and you can begin typing in your header.
Draw the text box at the top part of the slide. - Here is an example of how the text box header can appear.
The header will appear on every slide in the presentation.
Both the header and footer may have different text styles. The text may be challenging to read and will need some editing. Let’s look at a simple way of editing both header and footer in every slide.
- Use the “Slide Master” to apply the edit to every slide. To do this, open the View tab and click Slide Master to launch it.
Click Slide Master. - Scroll up on the slide section and select the first slide. Highlight the text in the header text box, and an editing pop-up menu will appear.
Click and drag the mouse over the text to view the pop-up menu. - Choose a preferable font, text size, and text alignment. Do the same for the footer. Then, go to the Slide Master tab and select Close Master View to return to normal view.
Click Close Master View. - Both the header and footer will have better visibility on every slide. Here is an example of how it will look.
Both the header and footer become more visible after editing.