How can I remove the space above the footnote separator?

Anonymous
2012-03-10T06:23:19+00:00

I have a long document with many footnotes. On some pages, a large space, sometimes only enough for one double-spaced line, sometimes enough for two, appears above the footnote separator. How can I get rid of this space? I've turned widow-orphan control off, so it shouldn't be related to that. I've looked at the separator under "show notes" in draft view, and it doesn't appear to have any extra spaces associated with it. This actually happens with all of my Word documents.

Thanks for your insight.

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Stefan Blom 352.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-03-10T13:52:16+00:00

When viewing the footnote separator (in the footnotes pane), right-click and select Paragraph from the context menu. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Indents and Spacing tab, and make sure that Spacing Before is set to zero. You may also want to change the Line Spacing to "Single."

Also, to make sure no blank paragraphs is included with the separator, click the ¶ button on the Home tab. Paragraph marks are represented by pilcrows, ¶. Delete any excessive paragraphs if present.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-10-03T08:11:46+00:00

    Hi Stephen,

    I had the same Problem and i have also tried almost verything without success. At the end i've found out that it's an easy and simple issue.

    Change your view from print view to normal view. Than go to a footnote number in your text. Double click on it. A new window will open in the bottom of your page. Choose the footnote separator and delete the space after the footnote seperator line. The Cursor will appear directly after the seperator line. That's all!

    Good luck

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-11T20:13:31+00:00
    1. Switch into draft view (View ->Draft).
    2. Hover your mouse above any footnote in the main text, and double click. A split window should appear, with your footnotes listed in it. It's finicky, so you might need to click a few times to make it appear.
    3. At the top, there's a drop-down menu set to "All footnotes". Switch to footnote separator. Edit to fix the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-13T13:42:53+00:00

    I have to say, having tried all of the remedies suggested above, that not one of them has worked. I'm sure I'm not alone in being utterly baffled as to why it should be such an ordeal to simply remove the space above a footnote so that a document looks more professional.

    Is there any other way that the space above a footnote can be removed? Is Microsoft working on rectifying this glaring error in future versions of Word or is it something that cannot be fixed (Ican't believe this could be true in the second decade of the 21st century)?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-08-01T23:37:55+00:00

    I did read Suzanne's article before. Very interestng, but it didn't help me.

    Modifying the widows/orphans in the Normal style (and not just by selecting all the text and going to the paragraph menu) did seem to work.

    Thank you.

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