Cannot Type in the Header or Footer Section of Numbers on iMac

Hey trace1208,

We're grateful that you posted here so we can help you figure this out.

When you're working with headers and footers in Pages, this resource is going to be your best bet: Add and remove headers and footers in Pages on Mac - Apple Support. If you click through to that article, it will go into detail on how you can add or remove headers and footers in Pages on macOS. The visual guide there is a great resource to bookmark and should help you out going forward.

For Numbers, you may be referring to header and footer rows. This article goes into detail on how you can edit those when applicable: Add or remove rows and columns in Numbers on Mac - Apple Support

We hope this does the trick for you!

Cheers.

When I first started using Numbers, I learned the Numbers header and footers were edited in the print dialog box...totally intuitive. ;-) I'm running the latest version of Numbers and MacOS and now it's at that first Print dialog...not the actual print dialog. This is where Numbers shows you the grid of what's going to print...before you finally click the, um, second Print... button. I don't use Pages very often, so maybe this is different. But hopefully this is the clue you need to solve your problem.

trace1208 wrote:

cannot type within the header or footer section of Numbers or Pages. I can delete text and paste text into the header/footer, but when I type directly in the field, nothing appears.

Are you taking care to click in a box of the footer or header, so that the cursor is flashing within it, before trying to type.

SG

Thanks trace1208 for showing me a work around for this issue. I did not know you could paste text into the Header and Footer. I have a M2 Mac Mini with the same problem.

I also have a new MacBook Pro where I can type directly into the Header and Footer. The MacBook Pro is running a different version of Numbers and I will be sure NOT to update it.

A fix for this problem on my Mac Mini is to create a new User Account and transfer everything from the existing account. I partially tried this (just created a new account) and it works. But it is a ridiculous and tedious fix. Apple needs to fix the problem.

trace1208 wrote:

I am amazed at the level of ineptitude assumed of question-askers... worse than "have you tried turning it off and back on" comments.

You'd be amazed at the number of times a simple reminder to restart the Mac or to try in a new user account does the job. Under pressure and in a frustrating situation even experienced users forget Troubleshooting 101. I forget sometimes too.

SG

trace1208,

If you've already restarted your device, and ensured the software is updated on your Mac and for the app, we suggest contacting Apple Support for further assistance.

Cheers!