invisible footnotes

[jaephyd]

Hi folks:

When I cut and paste and delete footnotes, Word seems to leave invisible
footnotes where the footnotes were. So, consecutive footnotes (e.g., 3 and 4)
may appear with large gaps between them (3 and 6). This goes on from page to
page. Reveal formatting, show hidden text, etc., shows nothing but if I GOTO
next footnote, it comes to rest where it think a footnote, without a marker,
is. If I delete the text around the invisible marker, the footnote seems to
jump out of the deleted text, and come to rest near the closest word. I'm
sure if Melville were writing about it, it'd be very meta-philosophical and
funny, but as it is, it's just really annoying.

Any thoughts?

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Sounds like your document has Track Changes enabled. You
probably need to turn off Track Changes, click on the "Accept All
Changes in Document" command on the Reviewing toolbar (see
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010983881033.aspx
and
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html
for more information), and update fields (press Ctrl+A, press F9)
before the footnote numbers will appear correctly.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you're not using Track Changes (as g-n-o suggests), it could be that
you're deleting the footnotes incorrectly. You don't delete a footnote by
deleting the text in the footnote pane or at the bottom of the page; you
delete it by deleting the reference mark in the text.

 

[jaephyd]

Thanks much,

It was indeed the track changes, which tracks the ghosts of footnotes past
until we accept them...something very postmodern and therapeutic about this
programming oddity.