Short horiz line above footer with line

[KOConnor]

I'm working in a document with many sections. My footers have a horizontal
line across the top, from margin to margin. In one section (a one-page
section), there is another horizonal line several line spaces above the
footer line, on the left side of the page, about two inches long. I cannot
get to this line to delete it. When I'm working in the document text, the
line appears greyed out, like the header and footer. When I click in the
footer, the line darkens, but I still cannot get to it. When I Show All
Paragraph marks, the lines appears in a dotted-line box. I've tried the
Drawing toolbar pointer, but can't grab the line or the box it's in. I can't
highlight the area. Please help! I need to remove it. Thank you. Kristin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This sounds like the Footnote Separator. My guess is that you have an empty
footnote that hasn't been properly removed. In the document body, place the
insertion point at the top of the page in question and use Find to search
for ^f (the code for a footnote reference mark). When you find it, even if
there seems to be nothing there, select a character or two before and after
the place where Find stops and delete the selection, then retype the missing
characters.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[KOConnor]

Thank you so much, Suzanne. Yes, it appears to be an empty Footnote.
However, when I searched for ^f , nothing was found. ("Search item was not
found.") I've never worked with Footnotes before, and I didn't create this
document. Do you have any other suggestions?

As a last resort, I may have to cover it up with a white box! I really want
to remove it, though. Thanks again.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Before searching, display Hidden text, as the footnote reference may well
have been hidden (as is often done when several footnote references are
combined), which would be why it didn't get deleted in the first place.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[KOConnor]

Suzanne, thank you for all your help. I tried displaying the Hidden Text,
but that didn't turn up anything either. However, I fiddled around with it
some more and figured it out!! I was able to place my cursor just below the
line, and then I right-clicked. From the menu I chose "Go to Footnote,"
which took me to the character in the text that was the footnote reference.
I deleted that character, and BINGO, the line went away! Thank you so much
for helping me with this.

Also, I see that you are in Fairhope. I am in Birmingham. I hope you are
having a great day down on the bay.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I should have thought of that; it figures that if there's still a phantom
footnote reference there, then it should be possible to get from it to the
phantom footnote!

Fairhope is lovely, as usual, and I would be having a greater day if I
didn't have some kind of grot that's going around. Today is, I hope, the
worst day (the uncontrollable dripping, sneezing, don't get too far from a
box of Kleenex day), but I'm a little bummed that I'll probably still have
the chest congestion and dry cough next week and the week after for our
vacation, culminating in MVP Summit March 1-4.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org