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The RCHS English department's style (Manuscript Form) specifies that each page after the first should have your initials and a page number in the upper right hand corner. Here's how to set that up in Microsoft Word:

View Headers and Footers

Automatic page numbers (as well as other information you want to add) are kept in special areas on the page called the Header and Footer. These areas of the page are the same for every page in the document (with exceptions, as we'll see in a bit); whatever you type in a header or footer will appear in that same spot on each page. The header is at the top of the page, while the footer..., well, you get the idea, right?

These areas are usually disabled—we don't want to type into them by accident—so the first thing we need to do to insert our page numbers is to turn on the header and footer so we can see them. You do this by choosing 'Header and Footer' from the 'View' menu, as shown here:

Once you make that menu selection, the cursor will move to a space enclosed with a dotted line labelled 'Header' that will appear at the top of the page:

(A similar area labelled 'Footer' will also appear at the bottom of the page, but we don't need that one, so I'm not going to show it. You can take a look if you want, though...)

When you choose 'Header and Footer' from the View menu, the Header and Footer Toolbar will also appear somewhere on the screen:

Pressing 'Close' on this toolbar will disable the headers and footers, and return the cursor to the main text area of the page—so don't press it yet! (If you do close it before you're done, just choose 'Header and Footer' from the view menu again to get it back.)

Inserting Initials and a Page Number

In our Header section, the cursor is on the left side of the page right now, and we want our initials and page number on the right side. Do not use the space bar or tab key to get the cursor to the right side of the page! Sloppy, sloppy. Instead, click the 'Align Right' button on the toolbar above the ruler. The cursor should jump to the right side of the header area.

(If you don't see an 'Align Right' button on your toolbar, chances are that Word has helpfully relegated it to the hidden 'More Buttons' area of the toolbar because no one's used it in a while. Click the 'More Buttons' button at the right end of the toolbar, and see if you can find it there. Or, more simply, type Control+R!)

Once the cursor is on the right side of the header area, we can input our text. Type your initials first, then a space. Do not type a page number! We're going to have the computer do this for us, and then it will change the number for each page we add later. To do this, simply click the 'Insert Page Number' button on the Header and Footer Toolbar:

A number ('1', probably, if you're just starting) should appear next to your initials. Now you can format all this text to match the rest of your document—change the text size, font, etc., just like you would normally. The beautiful part is that every time you add a new page to the document, your initials and a new page number will appear in the upper right-hand corner.

Before we hit the 'Close' button, though, there's one more thing to do...

Remove Numbers From The First Page

We don't want our initials and page number at the top of the first page. If anything, we want our name, class, date, etc. to appear instead. Setting this up is easy, once you know the trick:

On the Header and Footer Toolbar, click the 'Page Setup' button, as shown here:

This will open the Page Setup dialog box. All you need to do now is check the 'Different first page' checkbox, like in the shot below:

If you're on the first page of your document, you'll see your page numbers disappear (they've moved to the second page now, or, if you don't have a second page yet, they're waiting to jump onto one once it shows up) and your Header replaced with an area called First Page Header. Into that box, you can type your name, class, and other heading information.

When you're finished with all of that, punch the 'Close' button on the Header and Footer Toolbar. The text you've entered in the toolbar is greyed out, to show that it's there, but not directly editable. If you ever need to make changes, just choose 'Headers and Footers' from the 'View' menu again.