Quickly remove all headers and footers in Word

We've looked at the Document Inspector as a tool for preparing Office documents for public release. It's great for finding and deleting private and hidden details. But it can also be helpful for other tasks, such as removing headers and footers in Word documents.

If you only have one header and footer, this is a pretty easy task to delete it. Just double-click the top or bottom of the page to open the Design tab, click the Header (or Footer) button and select the Remove option. But if your document is long and complex with different headers/footers on different pages, it's a little more daunting. Unless you know this helpful trick.

In Word 2010, go to the File tab, click the large Check for Issues button, and select Inspect Document:

Inspect Document

In Word 2007, Inspect Document is under the Microsoft Office Button and the Prepare menu item.

Now uncheck all boxes EXCEPT Headers, Footers, and Watermarks. Note: This tool also remove any watermarks from your document.

Document Inspector

Click Inspect and you should see a result like this if you have headers, footers, or watermarks in your document:

Inspection results

Simply click Remove All to delete these. Note that you cannot undo the removal, so be sure to first save a version of the document with these elements intact if you wish to retain them.

Suzanne