Creating Running Headers and Footers, but not on the First Page

Question

I want a header similar to Microsoft word that appears at the top of each page. However I do not want this on the first page. I would like to have the name of the project on the left, my name in the middle, and the date on the right.

1. What packages and commands will create a header as described above?
2. What approaches can I take to customize the header?

Answer 1

You can use fancyhdr to facilitate making headers and footers. If you want the first page to have no header or footer---without using any special packages---you can issue \thispagestyle{empty} on the first page.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}%% a garbage package you don't need except to create examples.
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\lhead{This is my name}
\rhead{this is page \thepage}
\cfoot{center of the footer!}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\begin{document}

\thispagestyle{empty}

\lipsum[1-20]

\end{document}

Answer 2

The most obvious package is fancyhdr which allows you to set up left, right and center adjusted headers and footers.

Your document ned to start with:

\documentclass{...}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}

You can then format your header and footer with

\lhead{}
\chead{}
\rhead{}
\lfoot{}
\cfoot{}
\rfoot{}

Just leave them empty if you do not need any entry. you should check the fancyhdr manual for details on all possibilities with the package.

Answer 3

It depends which document class you are using.

If you are using document class memoir you please have a look to the question simple footers with only a page number. Document class memoir has its own header and footer mechanismn.

If you are using KOMA-Script, for example scrbook, you should use the KOMA-Script package scrpage2.

If you are using the classical document classes, for example book, you can use fancyhdr or scrpage2.

Meanwhile KOMA-Script has changed and was updated. The package scrpage2 has now changed to scrlayer-scrpage with more possibilites. I changed the following MWE to use the new package scrlayer-scrpage (only the call of the package has to be changed) instead of the old version scrpage2 (I only commented the call).

MWE for the usage of scrpage2 or scrlayer-scrpage (just move the comment sign to change the loaded package...):

\documentclass[
  fontsize=12pt  %
 ,english        % 
 ,headinclude    %
 ,headsepline    % line between head an document text
%,BCOR=12mm      % 
]{scrbook}       % twosided, A4 paper

\usepackage[latin9]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{babel}

\usepackage{blindtext} % provides blindtext with sectioning

%\usepackage{scrpage2}  % header and footer for KOMA-Script, old version
\usepackage{scrlayer-scrpage}  % header and footer for KOMA-Script

\clearscrheadfoot                 % deletes header/footer
\pagestyle{scrheadings}           % use following definitions for header/footer
% definitions/configuration for the header
\rehead[]{This is my name}        % equal page, right position (inner) 
\lohead[]{This is my name}        % odd   page, left  position (inner) 
\lehead[]{this is page \pagemark} % equal page, left (outer) position
\rohead[]{this is page \pagemark}
% definitions/configuration for the footer
\cefoot[]{center of the footer!}  % equal page, center position
\cofoot[\pagemark]{\pagemark}     % odd   page, center position

\begin{document}

\Blinddocument

\end{document}