Help my footnotes!

November 11, 2006 11:32 AM

I'm having a problem with footnotes on Word 2004 (Mac). . .

I am working on a document that was started on a PC version of Word. On the Mac, Word is not handling the footnotes correctly. Specifically, it seems that all of my existing footnotes (done on the PC) are appearing on one page is far apart from where the footnote actually is. They also don't appear to be numbering sequentially. i.e., if I delete #4, for example, it will make the next footnote number 5, not new number 4. Any ideas? (Also, if this is a compatability issue, will the problem resolve itself when I move the document back to the PC?)

posted by dshargel to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Word is notoriously buggy on footnotes, especially when moving from computer to computer (in my experience).

Here is a very low-tech solution: What has worked for me is to block copy the text wherein the footnote(s) appear(s). (Save all of the text & footnotes at issue in a separate doc.) Delete from the buggy document. Sometimes you have to go forward a few more paragraphs than you might think to pick up the bug. Then block paste the main text back into the document as a "paste special" "unformatted." Then manually re-insert the footnote into the (formerly) buggy document.

This is good for when there are a handful of footnotes that are jacked up. Perhaps too labor intensive to fix dozens of footnotes.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 1:25 PM on November 11, 2006

This may be screamingly obvious, but have you tried:
>>"Insert Footnote...">>"Options..."
And then switch "All Footnotes" to "Bottom of page" and "All endnotes" to "End of Section".
posted by roofus at 6:26 AM on November 13, 2006