Word Headers & Footer Options are missing

Karl 0

I have been using Microsoft Word for years, and suddenly the options for Headers & Footers have disappeared. It now only offers me "More Headers from Office.com". I have no idea why. This applies to old documents and new ones

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Answer recommended by moderator

Stefan Blom 353.8K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Your description indicates that the Built-in Building Blocks template (you may or you may not see the .dotx extension), which stores custom header/footer formats, have been damaged. You can delete the template, with Word closed.

Do the following: Exit Word if it is currently running. In File Explorer, go to %appdata%\Microsoft\Document Building Blocks. If you have a US English installation, open the 1033 subfolder and then the 16 subfolder. You will find two templates—Building Blocks.dotx and Built-in Building Blocks.dotx—and you should delete the latter one. When you are done, restart Word.

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Karl 0 Reputation points

2026-03-03T13:16:37.6733333+00:00

Deleted the file and it regenerated when i opened a new doc. Problem was not resolved though

5 additional answers

AMD 0 Reputation points

2026-09-30T12:07:08.0633333+00:00

Ensure "Show whitespace between pages" is checked in the Display option. This suddenly became unchecked following a 365 update on my laptop and my headers and footers stopped showing.
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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-30T12:17:30.9666667+00:00

Having white space hidden will prevent headers and footers from being displayed, but displaying white space will not solve the OP's problem, which is that header options are not being shown at Insert | Header & Footer.