Today you will
- set the margins and page shape of your proposal
- add a header with your name, project and date
- add a page number at the bottom
You need {{code:03_proposal_draft}} in {{code:03_documents}}. If you don't have it, make it there and paste in the text below.
My Something Real Proposal
Purpose: This project is about something I care about, and it is for a real reader outside the school.
Plan: Over the next six weeks I will take one clear step each week and keep a short record of what I did.
Outcome: By the end I will have a finished piece of work to show that reader, and a note on what I would change next time.
Warm-up
Think of a printed form you have seen. How could you tell whose it was and which page you were on?
Margins are the empty space between your text and the edge of the page.
Orientation is the shape of the page. Portrait is tall and landscape is wide.
A header is a strip at the top that repeats on every page.
A footer is a strip at the bottom, and it usually holds the page number.
Example
Aoife's cake business proposal is portrait with Normal margins. Her header says:
Aoife Byrne | Custom Cake Side Hustle | 12 March 2026
Her footer shows the page number in the centre.
You will lay out your proposal using Aoife's header for practice first. Open {{code:03_proposal_draft}} and follow the steps in the box below. Only type in the shaded strip at the top or bottom, never in the main page.
Aoife Byrne | Custom Cake Side Hustle | 12 March 2026
Common snags
- In Google Docs, margins and orientation are in {{menu:File -> Page setup}}.
- If your header is only on page one, turn off Different first page.
- If you typed your name in the main page, delete it. Open the header with {{menu:Insert -> Header & Footer}} in Word or {{menu:Insert -> Headers & footers}} in Docs.
- To leave the header, double-click the middle of the page.
Independent Practice
- Stay in {{code:03_proposal_draft}}. Don't save it with a new name.
- Delete all of Aoife's sample text from the header.
- Type your name, your project name and today's date, with a | between each one.
- Check the page is portrait and has a page number in the footer.
- Open {{menu:File -> Print}} and check that nothing looks cramped.
- Every page has my name, project and date at the top.
- Every page has a page number at the bottom.
- No text touches the header or footer.
- The file is still called {{code:03_proposal_draft}} in {{code:03_documents}}.
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