How to copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document?

Syncfusion® Essential® DocIO is a .NET Word library used to create, read, edit, and convert Word documents programmatically without Microsoft Word or interop dependencies. Using this library, you can copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document using C#.

Steps to copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document:

1. Create a new .NET Core console application project.
2. Install the Syncfusion.DocIO.Net.Core NuGet package as a reference to your project from NuGet.org.
   
   

3. Include the following namespaces in the Program.cs file.
   C#

using Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS;
using Syncfusion.DocIO; 

4. Use the following code example to copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document.
   C#

// Open the template document stream for reading.
using (FileStream templateStreamPath = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath(@"Data/Template.docx"), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
   // Open the main document stream for reading.
   using (FileStream maindocumentStreamPath = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath(@"Data/MainDocument.docx"), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
   {
       // Load the main Word document.
       using (WordDocument mainDocument = new WordDocument(maindocumentStreamPath, FormatType.Docx))
       {
           // Load the template Word document.
           using (WordDocument templateDocument = new WordDocument(templateStreamPath, FormatType.Docx))
           {
               // Copy header and footer from the template document to the main document.
               MoveHeaderFooter(templateDocument, mainDocument);
               // Create a file stream for saving the updated document.
               using (FileStream outputFileStream = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath(@"Output/Result.docx"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
               {
                   // Save the modified main document to the output file.
                   mainDocument.Save(outputFileStream, FormatType.Docx);
               }
           }
       }
   }
}

5. Use the following code example to move header and footer from one Word document to another Word document.
   C#

public static void MoveHeaderFooter(WordDocument templateDocument, WordDocument mainDocument)
{
   //Gets the section in the template Word document
   WSection templateDocSection = templateDocument.Sections[0] as WSection;
   //Move all the items from one collection to another collection
   for (int i = 0; i < mainDocument.Sections.Count; i++)
   {
       WSection mainDocSection = mainDocument.Sections[i] as WSection;
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.EvenHeader.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Header.ChildEntities);
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.EvenFooter.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Footer.ChildEntities);
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.OddHeader.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Header.ChildEntities);
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.OddFooter.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Footer.ChildEntities);
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.FirstPageHeader.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Header.ChildEntities);
       MoveItems(mainDocSection.HeadersFooters.FirstPageFooter.ChildEntities, templateDocSection.HeadersFooters.Footer.ChildEntities);

        //Copy the page setup from the template document to the main document.
       mainDocSection.PageSetup.DifferentOddAndEvenPages = templateDocSection.PageSetup.DifferentOddAndEvenPages;
       mainDocSection.PageSetup.DifferentFirstPage = templateDocSection.PageSetup.DifferentFirstPage;
       mainDocSection.PageSetup.HeaderDistance = templateDocSection.PageSetup.HeaderDistance;
       mainDocSection.PageSetup.FooterDistance = templateDocSection.PageSetup.FooterDistance;
       mainDocSection.PageSetup.Margins = templateDocSection.PageSetup.Margins;
   }
} 

6. Use the following code example to move all the items from one collection to another collection.
   C#

private static void MoveItems(EntityCollection childEntities1, EntityCollection childEntities2)
{
   for (int i = 0; i < childEntities2.Count; i++)
       childEntities1.Add(childEntities2[i].Clone());
} 

You can download a complete working sample to copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document from GitHub.

Take a moment to peruse the documentation where you can find basic Word document processing options along with the features like mail merge, merge, split, and compare Word documents, find and replace text in the Word document, protect the Word documents, and most importantly, the PDF and Image conversions with code examples.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning about how to copy the header and footer from one template Word document to another Word document in a .NET Core Word document.

You can refer to our ASP.NET Core DocIO feature tour page to know about its other groundbreaking feature representations and documentation, and how to quickly get started for configuration specifications. You can also explore our ASP.NET Core DocIO example to understand how to create and manipulate data.

For current customers, you can check out our components from the License and Downloads page. If you are new to Syncfusion®, you can try our 30-day free trial to check out our other controls.

If you have any queries or require clarifications, please let us know in the comments section below. You can also contact us through our support forums, Direct-Trac, or feedback portal. We are always happy to assist you!