Multiple Headers

A section supports exactly three headers: default, first-page and even. Anything beyond that, such as a header per chapter, means more than one section. Sections are created on a paragraph, and a section’s properties govern that paragraph and everything before it back to the previous section break.

// Content that should carry the first header goes here.

hdr := doc.AddHeader()
hdr.AddParagraph().AddRun().AddText("My Document Title")

para := doc.AddParagraph()
section := para.Properties().AddSection(wml.ST_SectionMarkNextPage)
section.SetHeader(hdr, wml.ST_HdrFtrDefault)

// Content after this paragraph belongs to the next section.

The direction catches people out. The section break paragraph closes the run of content above it rather than opening the content below it, so the header you attach applies backwards. Content added after that paragraph falls into the following section, and the last stretch of the document, which has no closing break, is governed by doc.BodySection().

Where the break falls

AddSection takes a wml.ST_SectionMark that decides how the new section starts:

NextPage is the one you want for chapter headers. Continuous is for changing column layout mid-page and will not give you a visible header change where you expect, because both headers would then need to render on the same page.

Limitations

AddSection overwrites any section properties already on that paragraph and returns a fresh, empty section. Page size, margins and column layout are not copied from the body section, so a section that should match the rest of the document needs SetPageSizeAndOrientation and SetPageMargins called on it again. That is also the mechanism for a single landscape page in a portrait document; see Page size and orientation.

Headers do not carry forward. A section with no header of its own gets none, not the previous section’s, so every section that should show a header needs its own SetHeader call. The same header value can be passed to several sections, and each reference points back at the same header part.

Only one paragraph can hold a given section’s properties. Calling AddSection twice on the same paragraph leaves you with only the second section.

The even/odd and first-page mechanisms still apply per section, and the evenAndOddHeaders setting that enables the even type is document-wide rather than per section.

Run the example

The example writes five paragraphs, closes them with a next-page section carrying “My Document Title”, writes five more, and gives the trailing body section a header reading “Different Title”.

git clone https://github.com/unidoc/unioffice-examples.git
cd unioffice-examples/document/header-footer-multiple
go run main.go

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