word document - how to create custom section headers?

HEY MODERATOR! You moved this post, but the  old page doesn't have a link to get me to the new post. Nor any clues about which section to look in. Can you help get me to the new location of this post, please?

I'm having a pretty easy time reproducing this. I create a blank doc. I put in lines that say Section One, Section Two, Section Three, with blanks lines between them. I make each of these lines a "Heading 1" style. I insert a Section Break (Next Page) before Section Two and Section 3, making the doc 3 pages long.

I then open the page header and insert a Quick Parts -> Field. Select StyleRef, Heading 1, Search from bottom of page to top, Preserve formatting during updates. I created one doc like this, the field appeared for a while, then with a little playing around, it disappeared. I created a second doc from scratch, now the field in the header won't appear one the first page, but does on subsequent (even though "Different First Page" is not checked).

Yes, I can toggle the field and it'll show me the field definition, even when it doesn't display the field contents. So the field is there, it just doesn't always display. And in section two and beyond, I get the error message in the Header Footer Boss screen, same as in the previous picture. Not sure how to react to that. Hhhmmm...

Absent extraordinary measures, a StyleRef Field will always display. If it can't find the referenced style, it will display an error. You have headers you are not seeing. [Edit: a StyleRef field that finds hidden text, will display as blank.]

Do not use Next-Page Section breaks to create new pages.

These create new sections as well as new pages. Thus, with two next page section breaks you are displaying three pages, yes. But you are displaying the first page of three sections. In header/footer logic, you are not displaying the primary (odd-page) nor the even-page header for any of these three sections. That is, you have a document that contains nine header areas, and you are seeing three of those.

In your second document, your header in the second section is not linked to previous.

Please review again:  Header/Footer Settings Recap

Headers and footers follow those rules. They have since Word 97, at least.

Aha! I improved matters significantly by removing the check from the box that says to "Search from bottom of page to top". Now only the field in the doc's very first page doesn't display (because there's no header defined in the section before Section One). Hhhmmm...

Generally the switch to search from bottom to top is only used when you will have two or more elements using the chosen style on a page and you want to do "dictionary-style" references in the header/footer.

Yes, if you have no header on the first page, you have no StyleRef Field in the header.

Aha! I improved matters significantly by removing the check from the box that says to "Search from bottom of page to top". Now only the field in the doc's very first page doesn't display (because there's no header defined in the section before Section One). Hhhmmm...