Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Ron Owens — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:49:51 GMT

Thanks for your message, Riaz. 30 carriage returns? Yikes. That must have been frustrating. Glad to hear your template's behaving properly now!

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Riaz — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:33:05 GMT

Hi Ron,

I have been working with a template that would go a bit crazy in the formatting when I added a footnote. After your advice, turns out the separator had about 30 carriage returns after it. I have now rectified it and everything now works properly. Thank you so much.

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Ron Owens — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:45:58 GMT

@b8akaratn: Glad it was helpful!

@ Dannette: Try opening the Footnotes Dialog box (on References tab, the little box in the Footnotes group) and set the Location of Endnotes to End of document.

I’m wondering if you may have started out with one Master Document containing all your chapters with section breaks dividing each chapter, and the location for your endnotes was set to End of section. If that's the case, then what may have happened is that when you divided the Master Document into your Individual Chapter documents, those settings were inherited.

Hope that helps!

P.S. Sorry for the delayed reply!

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Dannette — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:48:48 GMT

Hi Ron,

Appreciated your video on note separtors. I'm actually looking to find out how to remove the page/section break that is inserted automatically at the end of the endnotes. I'm formatting a book and have endnotes that begin on the same page as the last page of each chapter. Since I am supplying the publisher with separate documents for each chapter, that blank page after the endnotes is not needed and might be confusing to the publisher. Can you tell me how to delete it?

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Ron Owens — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:36:58 GMT

Glad to hear it was helpful, Fiona.

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Fiona — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:25:33 GMT

Thanks Ron! This has been a big help--I've been frustrated trying to find the fix for moving the footnotes separator! Fiona@ExecutiveEditing.com

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Ron Owens — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:55:59 GMT

Warren, here's another way to show the Notes pane (Word 2007 or 2010):

Click on the References tab
In the Footnotes group, click Show Notes

As for the extra spacing you'd like to get rid of, first thing I’d look at is that footnote and make sure it doesn't have a carriage return manually inserted before the reference mark. If that doesn't fix it, try this:

In the Notes pane, right-click on your first footnote
Choose Paragraph
On the Indents and Spacing tab, under Spacing, make sure that Before is set to 0

And if that doesn’t fix it, try this:

In the notes pane, click the dropdown and choose Footnote Separator
Then make sure there’s no space after/below the Separator line … or just click Reset

Hope that helps!

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

beckmill — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:08:25 GMT

When I double-click on the footnote number in Draft view, I don't get any drop-down. In fact, the separator is gone, though the footnote itself is there. So that doesn't work. The second thing that doesn't work is that my question is about how to reposition the separator. I have what is, in effect, a "triple-space" gap beneath the separator and the footnote. I'm trying to get rid of that and, in essence, move the separator "down" on the page. Can anyone help me learn how to do this?? Thanks in advance. - Warren Miller, CPA

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

Ron Owens — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:08:41 GMT

@LDMURS,

Word will automatically provide as much space as it can for your footnotes. The catch is that it will do so while necessarily keeping the footnote on the same page as the reference mark. To see a demonstration of a "maximized" footnote, try adding a really long footnote to the first line of text in a document. The rest of that first page will be filled with your super-long footnote.

But here are a few things you might try to help prevent your footnotes from breaking across pages:

Convert your footnotes to appear at the end of the document as endnotes – Word can do this for you
Shorten the footnote (but I’m sure you’ve thought of that one)
Reduce the font size of your footnotes
Insert a manual page break in your body text just before the reference mark

Does that help at all?

re: Change the footnote or endnote separator (video)

LDMURS — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:48:55 GMT

Is there any way to change how much space is available for footnotes? I don't want any "contiuation" footnotes that run onto the following page.

Thanks.