Repeat header row at the top of each page does not work as expected...

Anonymous
2013-10-27T14:55:55+00:00

I have tried to use the table properties option checkbox reading Repeat as header row at the top of each page, however, the header row just does not appear at the top of each page.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2013-10-27T15:23:13+00:00

To be a repeating header row, the row must be the first row of the table (multiple rows can be selected, but they must include the first and be contiguous. (Make sure, however, that you don't have the entire table selected when you designate a row as the header row.)

In addition, the table must have text wrapping set to None (Tabletab of Table Properties).

If the table contains a manual page break, the header will not repeat. You can, however, insert a page break without breaking the table by formatting a row as "Page break before" (on the Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog).

Note that this applies only to tables. If you want a page header, you need to add a header to the page itself.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-11-29T00:30:43+00:00

    Note that "Keep with next" and "Keep lines together" have no effect within a table row. But "Keep with next" would keep a row with the following row, which would cause the problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-07-29T17:37:43+00:00

    I know I'm very late to this conversation, and my Word is the 2010 version (In some ways, I'm permanently stuck in 2010, apart from my body/brain).

    The suggestions here worked for me. Thank you! I suspect I'd fallen foul of "Don't have the entire table selected".

    If something like this is preventing "Repeat header at the top of each page" from working, shouldn't the checkbox be disabled, or better you get a popup saying why it's not going to work? And how to fix it?

    Do later versions implement some sort of heads-up, warning you that it won't work?

    I hesitate to suggest greying out the control, as greyed-out controls are anathema unless clicking them pops up an explanation.

    If I ruled the world, that would be my first proclamation: NO GREYED OUT CONTROLS UNLESS CLICKING THEM TOLD THE USER WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT! Apart from the red button in the White House :-)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-04T20:38:50+00:00

    Turning off text wrapping was the key action for me. I had a little trouble finding it, but once I did, my multi-page table started getting the repeating header.

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-10-27T20:26:24+00:00

    In addition to the previous suggestions given, note that if you included a page break somewhere in the table, you have actually split the table, in which case the repeated header won't work. What you can do instead is add "Page break before" formatting to any row that should start a new page.

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