Resident has a very handy feature which allows you to create a custom header and footer. These can be assigned to documents you send. This header and footer will be independent of any document allowing you to change the header or footer just once with the changes appearing across the board. 


Below we will set out the steps needed to create a header and footer for your documents.


The first step to creating a header or footer is to create a word document. Please note: if you are looking to amend your header/footer rather than create a new one, please open the template location and download the current header/footer document to amend this. If you have an existing header/footer set up but want a brand new one, please do not make a new template on resident, please instead open the current one and upload the new document to this.


Note: Both the header and footer will need to be created at the top of the actual page, rather than using the 'header and footer' settings in word.


There are a few rules we need to follow when making a header template. Before we make a start, here they are:


1. Always create and edit the document in 'Web Layout'. This will be covered in the next few steps but since Resident is a web-based program the templates need to be in web layout.

2. Always put details into a table as shown below

3. Always save the file with the extension .DOCX


Now that we are aware of these rules the steps are as follows.


Step 1: Formatting the document


Create a blank word document and change the view to 'Web Layout' by clicking on the 'View' tab and navigating to 'Web Layout' like so:



This will slightly alter the appearance of the page and now the whole window will be white. This is exactly what we want!


Now that we have the page set up it's time to input the content we would like to see. 


Step 2: Adding the table


I will need to add a table to contain the content I would like to be seen. For example, here I will create a table with just one cell as I would like only our logo to be shown as a header. 



To start this process I will add a table. The table I want to add has only one cell but will contain all the information I wish to show on my document. To add a table please navigate to the 'Insert' tab and select 'Table'. This will bring up a grid in which you can select the row and column amounts you would like. Since we want one I will just select one as seen below:


I now have a table which looks like this:

Because we don't want this table to be seen in the document, we need to make the borders disappear.


To make the table borders invisible please navigate to the 'Home' tab and click on the image. This will drop a list of options. Please select 'No Border' as seen below:



Note: You may be able to see a dotted line as a guide but in the final result on Resident the border will not be visible.


Finally, we will make our table longer. To get a good result you should click on the right hand side of your table so that the mouse cursor looks like this . Now you can drag this out until it reaches 30 on the top margin as shown below:


Step 3: Adding the content


Now that we have our table we can go ahead and insert our logo inside the table by making sure that we select the table and our mouse cursor is inside the table. Now we can navigate to the 'Insert' tab and select 'Pictures' like so:



Now that I have selected our logo it has put itself inside the table just as I wanted. The only problem now is that the logo is on the left side and I wanted it on the right. You might notice the same has happened to yours. This is perfectly fine as we can change this very simply!


If you select the logo and navigate to the 'Home' tab as shown below you will see a picture like this . Selecting this image will align the logo to the right as also shown below.




Now this document can be saved for uploading to Resident.


Tip: To save your document in the correct format as stated about please select 'Save as..' when saving rather than 'Save'. This will bring up the following window:



Here you can select the correct format 'Word Document (*.docx)' for saving.


In the case that you are adding more elements than just a logo then you will need to add more columns or rows to your table. For example if I am creating a footer that has a logo on the right and contact information in the middle I would want 3 columns to split the page into 3 like so:


This can be achieved by selecting 3 columns when creating the table rather than one like so:


Step 4: Uploading your documents to Resident


Now that you have a header and a footer created you will need to add them to Resident. Please begin by navigating to the spanner icon (Settings) on the left hand side menu, then click on 'Templates' > 'Document Templates' like so:



Here we want to click 'Create New Document Template' as shown:



Here you need to fill out the following fields:


1. Give your Header/Footer a name.

2. Document type: Choose header or footer respectively.

3. Page orientation. Please select portrait.


Your completed form should look similar to this:



All that is left of this form now is the large box at the bottom with 'Drop files here or click to upload (max size 20mb)' written in it. This is where we need to place our newly saved word document. 


Once we have uploaded the word document we can click 'Create' and our new header or footer will be created. 


Step 5: Adding your header and footer to a document


Now that you have your header and footer set up you will be able to see the option to add these to other documents such as service charge demands (found in 'Settings' > 'Templates' > 'Document Templates') as shown below:




You will see that there are height settings for each. These will differ depending on the size of your header and footer so the values will vary with the documents. If your header/footer is not showing up, then it is likely that this number is too small. Increasing it will fix that issue. 


Your header and footer are now ready to go! Now you will only have to change these two files to make these amendments to all documents across the board!


Troubleshooting:


My image has turned black/the white or transparent parts are showing black

 

Some image data does not translate 1:1 and therefore some data gets muddled when using them on a web program. To fix this, simply open your image in Microsoft paint and save it as a new image (BMP is best for this) and the new image should not lose any colours.


There is a huge space between my header and the rest of the information on my page


This can be caused either by the header having too much space after the content of the page or the document template it is attached to having too much white space on the top of the page. Simply open both documents and delete any spaces in these locations. If it persists after this then amending the header height to a lower number should do the trick


My header is showing when I download documents individually but not on bulk downloads


To resolve this, simply increase the header height amount.


The border on my tables is still showing despite 'No Border' having been selected


This can happen on a rare occasion. It is unclear exactly what causes this on word but this can be resolved by adding the borders back but making them white in colour.