Q: format header or footer

I assume you are talking about Pages 5.x.

They expand down as you fill them with text and text will run across the columns if you keep typing.

I agree that that is neither obvious nor good design

Peter

Of course, you can hide the header/footers, and insert your own table with adjustable columns, as well as the full gamut of table customization capability. Once you have what you want, then use Arrange menu : Section Masters : Move Objects to Section Master. This will put your headers in the background on all of your document pages.

After turning off page headers, are you stating that the above effect is not possible in Pages v5.6.2?

The key to moving a table to section master is that you must first visit the Arrange tab, and set Text Wrap to None.

Then, Insert : Page Number, and Insert : Page Count with your own “Page” and “of” cell formatting — aligned appropriately in their respective cells, with all table, border, and cell gridlines removed.

You can't. Additionally, as I am sure you noticed, any text placed in the existing header/footer will be cut off if it exceeds the predetermined width of the column as soon as you click out of the box and will not flow across the page as described so many times in these posts.

During edit:

After edit:

This behavior appears to be the same no matter what column you choose. While the the included footer looks like  a table, it lacks many important table properties you would normally use to control the look of a table... and hence your frustration.

Solution:

You don't need to hide the current headers or footers (although you can create pages without them), but in order to gain the functionality you are looking for, you will need to follow VikingOSX's instructions and create a table that suits your needs. When positioned and formatted to your liking, you can place your new header/footer table on top of the one provided by Apple, and move to the Sections Masters.

VikingOSX's response was very good... I just chimed in to say hiding the header/footers is not a requirement.

I use the existing header/footer as visual guides in Layout mode for positioning of the replacement table, and then I remove the header/footer fields. Its a personal choice.

Here are how the various exports support a custom table for a header/footer:

• Epub
  • Master, and background objects are unsupported and removed, so can't use this technique with ePub.
• Word (.docx)
  • The correct formatting information is in place, but Apple's icons, Quick Look, and Preview show the exported Word document with the table collapsed to the left with cells shrunk to fit the text.
    • Same behavior with either Pages v5.6.2, or Pages 6.0
  • Pages '09 v4.3, and TextEdit show no content. The custom header table is excluded.
  • LibreOffice Writer opens the .docx with an intact header object as it was created in Pages, and substitutes its Page Number, and Page Count field codes, as appropriate.
  • Google Docs opens the .docx with correct formatting including page number and page count values.
  • No MS Word for testing.
• PDF
  • Correctly displays custom header table