Page margins with footnotes

[Stephen]

Hello.

I'm working with a document with lots of footnotes
(positioned at the bottom of each page). I'm experiencing
problems with the distance between the last line of the
note and the page number(positioned underneath the note,
centered, at the bottom of the page). Sometimes the
spacing is fine, but on some pages the space between the
last line of the note and the page number is far too large
for the document to look anything like professional.
Also, the variation between pages is a nuisance. The
spacing should be regular; is there anything I can do to
ensure consistent spacing underneath the footnote and
before the page number?

About a month ago (around about July 14)I was having
problems with the spacing between the last line of text
and the first line of the note, and I was given precious
help by Doug Robbins and Suzanne Barnhill which enabled me
to put things more or less right. This is a new problem
which I can't seem to get round. I can't seem to find any
parameters/options which will enable me to keep this
spacing coherent.

I'd appreciate any helpful hints anyone might have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If I remember correctly, the problem last time was that you had the
footnotes set "Below text" instead of "Bottom of page." If that's not the
problem now, check to make sure that there isn't any extra space in any of
the footnotes (either empty paragraphs or Space After) or in the footer.
Displaying nonprinting characters (Ctrl+*) always make this type of
troubleshooting easier.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[andy edwards]

are your pages in footers or not? if they're not in
footers this may cause the problem

 

[Stephen]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

My page numbers are indeed set as footers, at the centre
of each page. On some pages there is no problem, but on
others the space between the last line of the note and the
page number is very large. And the more I work with the
document, and the longer each note becomes, the worse the
problem seems to get.

Any other ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob S]

I follow what you say in your message, although I must
admit I don't fully understand. I don't get why, as you
say, the combination of document text and footnotes would
not be sufficient to fill a page (unless that page would
be the last one in a document), and why then there will be
extra space to put somewhere.

Some possibilities for why text and footnotes might not fill a page:

Paragraphs (e.g. headings) with "page break before"

Paragraphs set as "keep together" or "keep with next"

Widow-orphan control can cause variations of a line or two

Floating graphics: if the graphic plus the paragraph it is anchored to
won't fit on the page

Tables with rows set "keep with next"

I'm sure there are more possibilities...

Also note that if the body text and the footnotes are different font
sizes / line spacings, removing one line of body text does not leave
room for exactly one line of footnote, so the space between will never
be exactly the same from page to page.

Bob S