How To Remove the Footer in a Google Docs

Headers and footers are an integral part of formal documents that can include the document title, author, date, page number and anything you like. If you’re putting together a thesis, presentation, novel or something else, these page elements help the reader navigate the document. They also make it look much more professional. This tutorial is going to show you how to add or remove headers and footers in Google Docs.

Adding a header and footer does take up page space but can help the reader understand the document they are reading. The header goes at the top of the page and would typically have the document title and perhaps the author. The footer goes at the bottom, foot, of the page and will likely have page number and maybe any website or author hyperlinks.

Using headers and footers is personal preference for personal documents but usually mandatory for academic and professional documents. I’ll first show you how to do it in a browser and then on Android.

Add a header to Google Docs

If you want to add a header to Google Docs, you can do so quite easily.

1. Log into Google Docs and open the first page of your document.
2. Select Insert and hover over Headers & footers.
3. Select Header and enter the text you want to add.
4. Select anywhere outside of the header box to commit.

If you find the header takes up too much space, you can repeat Steps 1 and 2 above and select Options in the bottom right of the header box. You can adjust the height of the header there.

Add a footer to Google Docs

Adding a footer is a very similar process. Basically you select Footer instead of Header and go from there.

1. Open the first page of your document.
2. Select Insert and hover over Headers & footers.
3. Select Footer and enter the text you want to add.
4. Select anywhere outside of the footer box to save.

If you want to include a page number, that’s a separate setting. Just select Page numbers and set a position from one of the four diagrammatic options in the menu.

Remove a header from Google Docs

Removing a header is just as straightforward and returns your page back to the default full page text setting.

1. Open the first page of your document.
2. Double click the header area of that page.
3. Select Ctrl + A to select all text in the header.
4. Hit Delete to delete it all.
5. Click anywhere outside the header box to commit.

As you can see, all you need to do is delete your header entry and the box disappears.

Remove a footer from Google Docs

Removing a footer from Google Docs is just as straightforward and has the same effect.

1. Open the first page of your document.
   
2. Select Insert and hover over Headers & footers.
   
3. Select Footer and select Ctrl + A to select all text.
   
4. Hit Delete to delete it all.
   
5. Select anywhere outside of the footer box to save.
   

The footer box will disappear and your page will return to normal.

Add or remove headers in Android

The principle is the same if you’re working on a document in Android but the commands are slightly different.

1. Open the first page of your document.
2. Select the pencil icon to edit the document.
3. Select the three dot menu icon and toggle Print Layout.
4. Select the header box in the document by tapping on the upper part of the page and enter your text.
5. Select outside the header box to save.

Once added, you just need to select the header again to modify the text and it will be reflected in every header.

To remove the header, select it, select all text and choose Cut option to delete. The header box will disappear.

Add or remove footers in Android

Footers use the same principle for adding and removing.

1. Open the first page of your document.
   
2. Select the pencil icon to edit.
   
3. Select the three dot menu icon and toggle Print Layout.
   
4. Select the footer box by tapping on the bottom part of the page and add your text.
   
5. Select anywhere outside the box to save.
   

If you want to remove the footer from your Doc, you can using similar commands. Select the footer box by tapping on the bottom part of the page. Select all the text and choose Cut option to delete it. Then select out of the footer box and you’re done.

Google Docs may look simple but it hides some important features within that plain interface. If you ever need to play with headers and footers in Google Docs, you now know how!