Practical phpdocx

Headers and footers

Introduction

In new documents and templates, you can add headers and footers with text, images, tables and almost any kind of content.

Thanks to the WordFragment class you can easily add headers and footers, either simple ones or with multiple contents.

To make the header and footer insertion simpler, you can also use an extra template or templates from which you can import its headers and/or footers.

How to set the area of insertion of WordFragment

When creating a WordFragment object you can set where to add the contents.

By default, when creating a document with:

$text = new WordFragment($docx);

...simply add the content to the document. But, in the second parameter of the constructor you can define other areas:

defaultHeader or defaultFooter: For all headers and footers
firstHeader or firstFooter: Just for the first page
evenHeader or evenFooter: For even number pages

For example, to add a text as the header of all pages, call the code:

$text = new WordFragment($docx, 'defaultHeader');

Headers

The available method for adding headers is addHeader:

public function addHeader($headers)

You need to use a WordFragment to add the content.

For example, to add an image as a header, first create the WordFragment:

$imageOptions = array(
    'src' => 'image.png',
    'dpi' => 600,
);
$headerImage = new WordFragment($docx, 'defaultHeader');
$headerImage->addImage($imageOptions);

Finally, insert the content in the header:

$docx->addHeader(array('default' => $headerImage));

Footers

Inserting footers is like the headers process, but using addFooter:

public function addFooter($footers)

It counts with the same options as addHeader.

This way, to add the image in the footer, use the code:

$imageOptions = array(
    'src' => 'image.png',
    'dpi' => 300,
);

$footerImage = new WordFragment($docx, 'defaultFooter');
$footerImage->addImage($imageOptions);

$docx->addFooter(array('default' => $footerImage));

Pagination

The addPageNumber method:

public function addPageNumber($type = 'numerical', $options = array('defaultValue' => 1))

allows to add pagination in headers and footers.

The available options are:

$type: numerical, alphabetical or page-of
$options: For text properties, such as size, color and alignment

For example, for adding a footer with numerical pagination, apply this method after creating the WordFragment:

$options = array(
    'textAlign' => 'right',
    'bold' => true,
    'sz' => 14,
    'color' => 'B70000',
);
$numbering->addPageNumber('numerical', $options);

$docx->addFooter(array('default' => $numbering));

Contents positioning

It's necessary to define a table to correctly organize the content of headers and footers. For example, to insert a logotype as an image, a text and a paginator after creating a WordFragment, generate the table as a new WordFragment:

$valuesTable = array(
array(
array('value' => $headerImage, 'vAlign' => 'center'),
array('value' => $headerText, 'vAlign' => 'center'),
array('value' => $headerPageNumber, 'vAlign' => 'center'),
    ),
);
$widthTableCols = array(
    700,
    7500,
    500
);
$paramsTable = array(
    'border' => 'nil',
    'columnWidths' => $widthTableCols,
);
$headerTable = new WordFragment($docx, 'defaultHeader');
$headerTable->addTable($valuesTable, $paramsTable);

And add this table to the header or footer as a new element:

$docx->addHeader(array('default' => $headerTable));

Replacing headers and footers in templates

It is possible to replace the defined placeholders in the template headers and footers. To do so, you can use the methods replaceVariableByText, replaceVariableByWordFragment and other template methods.

It is mandatory to specify the target, depending on where the placeholder is located.

Generate different headers and footers for multiple sections

addHeader and addFooter methods add new headers and footers in all sections of the document, removing existing headers and footers.

Advanced and Premium licenses allow generating documents with headers and footers per section. On Generate different headers and footers for multiple sections is detailed how to do this task.

Tips and Tricks

You can import headers and footers from an existing DOCX with importHeadersAndFooters:

public function importHeadersAndFooters($path, $type = 'headerAndFooter')

You have to indicate the path to the document to import, choosing:

headerAndFooter: For inserting both contents
header: For inserting just the header
footer: For inserting just the footer

For example, to import and add both headers and footers of the DOCX, use:

$docx->importHeadersAndFooters('templateHeaderAndFooter.docx');

Next - Pictures and images