How to create a cover page in Word

How much time have you spent creating a cover page in Word? Before you know it you’ve taken 30 minutes and all you have is a heading and a page border. When I started working I used to spend a good deal of time creating the perfect heading, adjusting its alignment and location on the page. I would include a subtitle, author details, an image and a nice page border. It was time-consuming.

If you are still creating a cover page in Word manually, let me save you a considerable amount of time and show you how to use the Cover Page feature instead. You will be creating professional-looking cover pages with your own customised text in under 60 seconds.

Microsoft Word includes numerous cover page designs which are pre-defined templates, displayed in a gallery. These designs provide areas for text, dates and images that you can customise to suit your own needs. You can also access more designs from Office.com, or create your own custom design to save for use in the future.

Create a cover page in Word

To create a cover page, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Open a document you wish to add a cover page to or begin this exercise with a blank document.
3. Select the Insert tab from the Ribbon.
4. Now click the Cover Page button within the Pages group:

5. The Cover Page gallery will be displayed.
6. Use the scroll bar to scroll down and view all available designs.
7. Once you have identified the one you like, click it once with the left mouse button.
8. The cover page will be added to your document.
9. You will now see prompts for where you can add text or content:

10. Simply click into a text prompt and enter the information you wish to display.
11. When you click within a prompt for [Date], you will be displayed with a calendar, simply click any date within the year you wish to display:

12. You may see that Microsoft Word will fill in some information for you, based on the information you entered when you installed Microsoft Word. You can change this information if you need by clicking on the text area:

13. If the cover page design you have chosen includes an image and you would like to use your own, select the image.
14. Click the Picture Tools > Format tab which should now be visible.
15. Select the Change Picture button from the Adjust group:

16. You can now navigate your computer files and select an image to use instead, click Insert once you have selected the new image.
17. The image will now be replaced.
18. You have now created a professional-looking cover page all with a few clicks of the mouse.

Delete a cover page

If you have created a cover page in Word and decide later that you wish to remove it, you do not have to delete the elements individually.

1. Click Insert > Cover Page from the Ribbon.
2. From the Cover Page drop-down menu select Remove Current Cover Page.
3. The cover page will automatically be removed leaving the rest of your document untouched.

Date formats

A common issue I see when using cover pages is that the automatic date fields are formatted in US date formats. Because I am located in Australia and for my readers who also prefer UK formatting I thought I would show you how to change this setting so that you can choose the format the date will be displayed in. You can even change it from 30/08/2018 to 30-Aug-2018 if preferred.

1. Place your cursor in the date field to select it.
2. Select the Developer tab from the Ribbon.
3. If you do not have the Developer tab available go to File > Options then select the Customize Ribbon option:

4. In the right-hand pane place a tick in the option to display Developer then click OK.
5. From the Developer tab click the Properties button within the Controls group:

6. The Content Control Properties dialog box will appear:

7. Go to the Date Picker Properties and from the list select the date format you wish to use.
8. Click OK.
9. The date should now be changed to the format you have chosen:

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to create a cover page in Word. Be sure to check out some of my other Word articles including:

• How to create a cross-reference in Word
• The best keyboard shortcuts for Word
• How to create perfect shapes,
• Resize your pictures,
• How to dictate in Word,
• Add a header and footer to a Word document,
• How to send bulk emails using Mail Merge in Word
• Quick Parts – the quickest way to insert reusable information in Word,

Feel free to comment below with any questions.