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Repeat Microsoft Word table headings across multiple pages

When you create a large table in Microsoft Word that spans multiple pages, you'll find on the second and subsequent pages that the table headings don't repeat. In this lesson you'll learn how to configure one or more rows of your table to repeat at the top of the page for every page on which your table appears. This lesson applies to tables in Microsoft Word 2010 for Windows and Word 2011 for Mac (as well as Word 2007 for Windows).

Configure the headings row of a Microsoft Word table to repeat on every page

This lesson assumes you have already created a table in Microsoft Word, and formatted the first row as the heading for the table. This is the row that should appear on each page the table appears on.

To configure the first row of your table to repeat on each page, follow these steps:

  • Right-click inside the first row of the table and choose Table Properties
    Microsoft Word selecting Table Properties for a table
  • In the Table Properties screen, click the Row tab if it is not already selected.
  • Select the option to Repeat as header row at the top of each page
    Microsoft Word table properties, row settings
  • Click OK to confirm your selection.
  • Be aware that you won't notice any difference to your table if the table doesn't currently span more than one page. You may want to add extra rows to the table just to be sure.

Note that you can choose more than one row in your table. This means that multiple rows from the top of your table will repeat on each page. If you want to configure more than one row as the heading for your table, simply select the first row and any additional rows, then repeat the steps above. Note that you can select as many rows as you want, but you MUST include the first row of the table for this to work.

Want to learn more? Try these lessons:

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Comments on this lesson

Changes won't apply

Submitted by on

Hi

Thanks for the tip, but I've tried to do this and Word does not seem apply the changes after I've made them - this means although the boxes are checked and unchecked respectively, it still will allow for the table to break across pages and does not even repeat the first row.

Any idea of what that might be caused by?

Cheers

Which version of Word are you using?

Submitted by on

Hi Phil

Hard to say without having a look at your document. Which version of Word are you using?

Is it possible you've got rows with lots of content that won't fit on a single page? That's the only scenario I can imagine where rows would break despite this setting. That said - it will only apply the setting to the rows you have selected. Make sure you have the whole table selected and then try enabling it.

As for the first row not repeating, make sure that is the only row selected when you enable that option.

If you want to send me the document to review, let me know.

David

Actually there is a small

Submitted by on

Actually there is a small trick, this is what I did. I created a table with contents spaned beyond one page.
First step: select the top row which has titles for the rows, right click , select the row option and check the repeat header as mentioned in the tip.
you will immediately see the top row repeating in the next page.

However if you first change the table level properties and then change the top row level properties it will not work.
The trick is while cursor is in the first row right click the table properties the move forward.

Header repeat on each row

Submitted by on

I have carefully followed both tips relative to this topic, however, my headers still do not repeat on each page. I have Word 2113. My page layout is landscape. Does that have anything to do with it. Thanks

I have a similar, yet

Submitted by on

I have a similar, yet slightly different problem in Word 2010. I want the table headers to repeat, but I don't want rows to break across pages. Why? Because my tables contain instructions and in order to read properly, I need the row content to stay together. I have tried all sorts of combinations of the two checkbox options in the Table Properties dialog box (second illustration above), but it just won't work. If I repeat the headings alone, then the rows split. If I clear "Allow row to break across pages" with the repeating heading option selected, Word formats all the rows on the second page with a different cell background and font. I can't help but wonder if this formatting anomaly is tied to a cascading style sheet, but the format doesn't match anything else I have in the table, so who knows?! Any ideas how I might achieve my goal?

Sounds like a formatting problem

Submitted by on

Hi Ana

Thanks for your comment. It sounds like a formatting problem to me, rather than a problem with the table, but it's impossible to be sure. If you want to share the document you're having trouble with (or just a portion of it) I'd be happy to help troubleshoot it. You can get in touch directly via our contact form and I'll reply with the address to send the document to.

David

More information please ...

Submitted by on

Hi Sri

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you want to have more than one row repeat on each page? If so, you can do this by selecting multiple rows (including the first) and repeating the steps above.

If you want to know how to do something different to this, can you please provide more information?

Regards

David

I have tried doing a heading

Submitted by on

I have tried doing a heading row in a table following your instruction and it doesn't work. I am using Word for 2011 for Mac. The settings look exactly like those in your instructions but the row doesn't repeat.

After working on this, it

Submitted by on

After working on this, it seems the repeat as header row will not work past a page break that is manually inserted. Have no idea why but I just kept trying things.

Thanks for the tip

Submitted by on

Hi Bonnie

Thanks for letting me know. I wouldn't have thought to ask if you had manually inserted a page break in the middle of the table.

I'm guessing that the manual page break effectively created a new table from everything beneath it.

Regards

David

Word can't do it, but here's a workaround

Submitted by on

Hi Fran

Word doesn't support this feature, but here's a solution from another site:

https://www.wordbanter.com/showthread.php?t=48326

Essentially, you would put "Continued" in the header row of your table, and then use a graphic to cover it up in the first page the table appears on (so the "Continued" message only appears in the second and subsequent pages).

The way to do this would be to anchor the graphic to some text in the first row of the table (click in the text then insert your graphic, and then position the graphic relative to the text).

This doesn't sound like a great solution to me, but it's better than nothing!

Regards

David

That may not work after all

Submitted by on

Hi Fran

I tried this after posting the previous comment, and it didn't work as expected. I'd be interested to know if you have any more luck than I did.

Regards

David

Repeat headings & Page breaks

Submitted by on

I have read that the repeat headings won't work if you have page breaks manually inserted in your table.

Is that true for page breaks in the document at all ? I have a page break before a table and a page break after a table and in other places in the document but not within the table and the repeat headings is still not working ?

Seems to me that if there is a page break anywhere in the document it won;t work ?

Solution not found - :(

Submitted by on

Well i tried it again and it didn't work - back to square 1 - please help . Page breaks in document not in table and headings won't repeat

Please upload your document so I can review it

Submitted by on

Hi Tamaryn

Can you either email or upload your document for me to review? You can reply to the email notifications you've been getting in relation to this discussion, or use the comment form to upload the document. Once I have it, I can try to figure out what the problem is.

Regards

David

Repeat Header Rows

Submitted by on

I have a table with the repeat header row, but I would like to add a line before the repeat header row, how does one do that? For example the first page has the word Outstanding, on the second page I would like to add the word To Be Reviewed. I can't insert this line because of the repeatable header row, is there a way around this?

John

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