Adding Page Header and Footer Proxies

The Page Header and Page Footer proxies let you insert content or automatic page numbering (specifically designated for the first page, even pages, or odd pages) in a template page. Use the Page Header proxy to insert content and page numbering above the body, and use the Page Footer proxy to insert content and page numbering below the body. When you insert one of these proxies, a page number placeholder is added automatically. You can delete it if you do not want to include a page number in that location, or you can realign it (to the left, right or, center). If you want to specify a starting page number or change the format (e.g., alpha, Roman, uppercase, lowercase), you can do so by editing the Body proxy and changing the settings in the Printer Page Properties dialog.

How to Add Page Header and Footer Proxies

  1. From the Content Explorer, open the template page.
  2. Place your cursor at the location in the template page where you want to add a proxy.
  3. Select Insert > Page Header or Insert > Page Footer. Depending on the type of proxy you select, either the Page Header dialog or Page Footer dialog opens.

  4. In the dialog, click the down arrow in the Stylesheet class field and make a selection. Select either Odd Page, Even Page, or First Page (depending on whether you want that particular header or footer content to be displayed on the odd pages, even pages, or first page of the printed output).

    Note If you want a page footer or header to always display on certain page types by default, you can specify this in your stylesheet (using the mc-feader-type property). Therefore, that page type will always be used as the default setting, unless you override it at the spot where you have inserted the proxy. See Editing the Page Type for Page Footers and Headers.

    Note You do not need to limit yourself to one page header or one page footer per template page. If necessary, you can add three page headers (one for first pages, one for odd pages, and one for even pages), and you can add three page footers (one for first pages, one for odd pages, and one for even pages). This way, you only need to use one template page to specify what header content is to be used on which pages of the printed output.

  5. Click OK.

    The proxy is added to the template page. A holder for page numbering is automatically added. However, this does not mean that you must use page numbering for that header or footer. You can delete the page numbering holder if you want. It also does not mean that you cannot add anything else to the header or footer. You can add any content that you want to that header or footer by doing the following.

    1. Place your cursor inside a particular page header or Page Footer proxy.
    2. Type or insert the content as you normally would in a regular topic.

    To See If Cursor Is Within a Page Header or Footer Proxy

    If the tag block bars are not shown to the left of the content, click at the bottom of the editor.

    The tag bar to the left of the proxy will display the label (or at least the first part) for a "MadCap|pageHeader" or "MadCap|pageFooter."

    To See Which Page(s) Will Display Page Header or Footer Content

    To determine whether the page header or page footer will be displayed on odd pages, even pages, or the first page of the printed output, right-click the structure bar to the left of the proxy. Then from the context menu, select Style Class. The appropriate page designation will have a check mark next to it.

  6. Click Save the active file. to save your work.

Note If you want to specify a starting page number or change the format (e.g., alpha, Roman, uppercase, lowercase), you can do so from the TOC Properties dialog when you specify section breaks for the output. See Specifying Section Breaks and Template Pages.

Note In addition to any type of regular content (e.g., text, images) and page numbers, you can insert Heading variables or Running Head variables into template pages. These types of variables are a great way to automatically include text (such as the first paragraph using an h1 style). See Inserting Heading Variables Into Template Pages and Inserting Running Head Variables Into Template Pages.