Footnotes keep getting cut off and disappearing

Anonymous

I have recently tried to start using Word 2011 for academic purposes and as such am starting to require the ability to footnote my work. This works fine up to a point, however once I have added several footnotes to the text, they randomly start disappearing and being cut off from the bottom of the page.

I can still click on the small footnote number within the main body of the text and have the carat then jump to the footnote at the bottom, however I cannot see what or where I am typing, despite the text being added to the footnote. If I then scroll around the page and go back to the main body text again, after a few minutes of random scrolling it eventually decides it's going to let me view the footnotes again, but then some disappear after a short while.

What am I doing wrong and how on earth can I get Word to allow me to edit my footnotes without them disappearing off of the screen?!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

THE PROBLEM IS RELATED TO AUTORECOVER

I am almost sure that this is a bug in Microsoft Word 2011. I have been trying to figure out a solution to this problem for months. I have tried all of the suggestions and hundreds of my own...all to no avail. HOWEVER, I have discovered something that has not been mentioned here...

I have my AutoRecover set to 1 minute. Footnotes are fine until Word saves the AutoRecover information and then they disappear. I can see the blue AutoRecover progress bar flash across the status bar at the bottom of the window and immediately the footnote disappears. I then reapply the footnote style and they reappear as they should until the next AutoRecover.

Would someone please verify this. Hopefully we can get Microsoft to address this issue if we can demonstrate that it is a problem with Word and not the document formatting or the end user. Thanks.

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Anonymous

THE SOLUTION FOR ME: mentioned above.

HIGHLIGHT ALL FOOTNOTES, ENTER STYLES, RE-APPLY FOOTNOTE STYLE TO THEM.

Works like a charm. But i'm sure I'll forget it next time. Here's a thought: someone at Microsoft could fix the bug.

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Anonymous

I've experienced the same problems. In my current document, the first footnote (which is 5-6 lines) cuts off at the first line. Disabling AUTORECOVER seems to have solved the problem, but this is a terrible long-term solution.

Is there a real fix for this? This is a major problem, in my view.

Am using Word 2011 on a mac. Last update: 14.3.2

Thanks!

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Anonymous

Between Endnote's "autoformat" and this problem with footnotes, I was ready to give up, but disabling auto-save worked! Thanks so much - it's three am and I was ready to jump ha ha ha.

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Anonymous

I have seen several responses trying to find a workaround and the one I posted originally (January 13, 2012) is still THE workaround for this problem. I did extensive testing and can reproduce the problem 100% of the time as being directly related to the Autocorrect function. The workaround is to disable Autocorrect and remember to CMD+S often so you don't lose anything. Placing a table in the footer may work, but it is a complicated solution and I don't know how it will work with Endnote or papers large numbers of footnotes. Since disabling Autocorrect, I have completed several long and highly referenced research papers and have not had this problem rear its ugly head a single time. It would be nice if Microsoft would fix the problem, but its already been a while and the problem remains. This applies to Word 2011 Mac Version.

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44 additional answers

Jim G 134.1K Reputation points MVP

2013-11-04T16:27:23+00:00

@ Sharon

This Q&A forum is for users of Microsoft Word, but it is a community forum between us users and is not a direct conduit to anyone from Microsoft. While Microsoft employees occassionaly visit and interact with people in the forum, by and large you are writing to other users, not anyone connected with Microsoft. You can get sympathy from us other users, and you have mine, but you should not expect that any Microsoft employees see your comments, much less respond to them here.

Microsoft Office does (or at least used to) come with a warranty. Unless it has changed, it is 30-days from date of purchase for a full refund. I searched the terms "warranty" and "refund" here in the forum, and apparently it is not a very requested thing, as I didn't come up with a link to the warranty terms. I know the installer makes you click through the End User License Agreement (EULA), and maybe that document addresses the warranty question. States vary with regard to additional protections offered. If you're past the warranty period, then you should check with your state and local consumer protection agencies to find out if you have other options.

The disappearing cursor problem has not been resolved, as you have surmised.

I can't say that I've seen anyone mention the scroll bar problem, though. You might want to search the Answers forum for that issue. If you don't find a resolution to it, then by all means post a new question asking about it. Be sure to mention your update level of Mac OS and Word. Be sure to include the scroll settings you have chosen in Mac OS preference and Word preferences.
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