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Problem with endnotes temporarily disappearing

Anonymous
2024-01-30T10:25:34+00:00

Hello!

I had several Word documents (chapters of a book) and I assembled them together in one document using Insert text from file option. Then I set endnotes to appear at the end of each section (each chapter beginning in a new section). However, from time to time Word hides 4 pages containing endnotes from the first chapters (yeah, it's an academic book with a lot of endnotes) and the cursor moves 4 pages down. Then I have to wait for Word to be kind enough to unhide those pages. When this happens double-clicking the endnote reference doesn't do anything until the endnotes are visible again. I can work on the document without any problems and the endnotes are still there, hidden yet there. Why does this whole "dance" happen? I should mention I use Word 2016.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | Other | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2024-01-30T12:18:16+00:00

    Segunfunmi appears to have got the wrong end of the stick. I suspect your issue is just a matter of Word needing to repaginate (in essence, recalculate and redraw the pages). Endnotes exist in a kind of virtual space that creates complexity for Word and slows down repagination. What you can do when using such a document is press Ctrl+End when you open the document. This forces Word to repaginate the entire document to begin with instead of piece-by-piece as you go through it. You may find that this clears the problem of disappearing notes.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-30T14:32:48+00:00

    I did some more digging. So, the pages containing endnotes for chapter 1 are pages 57–62 (I had the numbers wrong in the previous reply). So if I use Ctrl+G command to go to page 56, Word takes me to page 56. If I want to go to page 63, Word takes me there. But if I want to go to page 57, Word takes me to page 63, and if I want to go to pages 58 through 62, Word takes me to the last page. There surely must be a corruption somewhere, but I cannot figure out where. I don' know it it helps, but every chapter begins in a new section of the type „New page”.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-01-30T14:22:23+00:00

    No, it didn't work. The document contained also tracked changes resulted via document comparison. I accepted all changes but to no avail. The problem, however, seems to be only with the first chapter. When the pages suddenly shift, if I go to the pages containing the endnotes for the first chapter (pages 57–61) and start scrolling from page 56 downward, all the notes appear fine and the pages are again all right; if I go to page 62 and start scrolling up, ar first I get a blank page where it should have been page 61, then the notes reappear and the pages are again all right. It's a very strange behavior. I will try and separate chapter 1 in a stand-alone document and see if the problem persists.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-30T12:12:04+00:00

    Hello Cristinel_Sava,

    I'm Segunfunmi, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft user like you. Thank you for posting your query in this forum.

    It appears that the issue you are experiencing with Word 2016 is due to how Word handles hidden text and endnotes. When you hide text that contains endnotes, the endnotes themselves are not hidden, which is a known issue and is considered to be by design.

    I strongly suggest changing the endnote styles to 'Hidden' under the Style settings to resolve this issue, then choosing Font and Hidden Text. This should hide the endnotes, although please note that this might not hide the dividing line between the main text and the endnotes.

    If the endnotes are still not visible, I recommend changing your view to Draft view and going to File > Options > Display to show all formatting marks and hidden text. This should make any hidden section breaks visible.

    Moreover, you can try storing the document in personal OneDrive or OneDrive for Business and then open it in Word online to check if you can see the endnotes.

    It is essential to save your work frequently to avoid data loss. Please let me know if this helps!

    Kind regards, Segunfunmi.

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