endnote numbering corrupted

[yogimondo]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

After deleting a number of endnotes in a Word document, the numbering of the remaining endnotes in both the main body and endnote section retain their old numbers. For example, the first note was deleted, but the file still lists the first note as "2" even though there is no note "1". In other words, the document is not automatically updating the note numbering, and as far as I can tell, there is no menu command to force it to do so.
Any suggestions?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

How did you delete the endnotes? You have to delete the reference
number in the main text.

Is it possible these are actually cross-references to a numbered list?
Cross-references require the Update Fields command to update. Try
cmd-opt-shift-U to do so.

Also, see here for other possibilities and things to try:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/footnotefaqcontent.htm#RenumberNotes

 

[yogimondo]

Thanks so much for your reply. The notes were deleted by deleting the reference number in the main text. Thus there is no sign of the missing reference numbers in the main text, nor can they be seen in the list of endnotes, but they impact the note numbering nonetheless.

I have tried a few things, but to no avail. Previously the note numbering began from note 2 even though there was no note 1. So I tried adding a new note before that note 2, hoping that might result in notes 1 and 2 following as expected. But though Word accepted my new note as note 1, it then changed what had been note 2 into note 3, so now I have note 1 followed by note 3, but with no sign of note 2 anywhere in the main text or in the Endnote section.
Then I tried deleting what is now note 3 in the main text, and re-inserting a entirely new note from the Insert menu in the same place in the main text, hoping that Word would recognize this new note as the second note in the document. But instead Word chose to label this new note once again as note 3, despite the absence of any note 2 either in the main text or in the endnote section.

It thus appears that while the display of the previous notes has been eliminated when they were deleted from the main text, the encoding for those "deleted" notes is still in the main text somehow and therefore impacting the numbering of the notes in the main text and Endnote section as well.

This file was created in Word, and modified in Word. It did not go in and out of any other program. The only thing I can think of is that I wrote it in Word 2008, saved it in Word 2004 doc format and sent it to the editor. Perhaps the editor who deleted the footnotes used Word 2004 and this causes something? But whether I open the file now in Word 2004 or Word 2008, the result is the same.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Did you follow the link I suggested? If you are Tracking Changes, your
numbering will be messed up until you have Accepted All Changes.

Also try the corrupt doc fixes.