Footnotes

[Ricki Miles]

I am working in Word 2000. Is there a limit to the length of a footnote? I
have a very long footnote with several hard returns in it. It starts at the
bottom of page one, then continues with part of it on page two, and the end
of it appears on page three. Page two remains blank except for the footnote
text which appears near the top of the page instead of the bottom.

I would appreciate any insight. Thanks

Ricki

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Obviously, if you have a footnote that is more than a page long, it will
start on the page where it is referenced, consume the entire following page,
and, if necessary, overflow to the next page. Although there is no limit
(that I know of) for the length of a footnote as far as Word is concerned, I
would personally say that a footnote longer than a page is too long. I
assume this is a substantive footnote rather than mere source documentation.
That being the case, I would suggest that you convert the footnote into an
appendix and merely refer to it in a footnote.

If you must keep the footnote as a footnote, then you can at least control
how it is displayed. Assuming that there are several paragraphs in the
footnote (as your mention of "several returns") suggests, apply "Keep with
next" to selected paragraphs such that more of the footnote will flow to the
third page, allowing some of the document text to appear on the second page.

And if I have misunderstood your description and in fact the footnote is not
consuming the whole of page two, then perhaps the problem is caused by some
"Line and Page Breaks" settings already existing in the footnote.