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?

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}
\cfoot{center of the footer!}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\begin{document}

\thispagestyle{empty}

\lipsum[1-20]

\end{document}


• Hi A.Ellett you failed to mention that for fancyhdr to work you do need a special package. – theking2 Jul 23 '17 at 11:43
• @theking2 whatever do you mean? everything you need is right there in the example. what you don't need is the 'lipsum' package. – A.Ellett Jul 23 '17 at 14:40

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

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


\lhead{}
\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.

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        %
%,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

\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