Footnotes

Question

I am trying to write a word document with many footnotes.  The footnotes are starting at "2", despite all my efforts to start at "1".  I have tried to use the "footnote and endnote" tab on references to correct this, without success.  Any suggestions.

Answer 1

Assuming that you have the "Start at" number set to 1 in the Footnote and Endnote dialog (accessed via the dialog launcher arrow in the bottom right corner of the Footnotes group on the References tab), then the likelihood is that there is, as Net Rider suggests, an elusive first footnote. There are two ways to find it:

1. Using Browse. Click on the Select Browse Object button between the double arrows at the bottom of the vertical scroll bar. Choose Browse by Footnote. The arrows then have the function Previous Footnote and Next Footnote. You can use them to take you to location of each footnote. When you get to a location where there appears to be no footnote. select a character before and a character after the indicated location and Delete. Then retype the deleted characters.
2. Using Find. With the insertion point at the beginning of the document, click Ctrl+F to open the Navigation pane, click the arrow beside the search box, and choose Footnotes and Endnotes. All note markers in the dialog will be selected, and you can use the up and down arrows to move through them. Alternatively, click Advanced Find. (Or, more simply, use Ctrl+H to open the Replace dialog and choose the Find tab.) With the insertion point in the "Find what" box, type ^f. Then click Find Next. Whenever you find a "hidden" note, delete it as described in (1).

If the footnote reference really has been marked as Hidden, you can make it appear by displaying Hidden text (click the Show/Hide ¶ button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab). This will facilitate selecting and deleting it.

Answer 2

You may actually have a footnote numbered "1" left over from previous work. You can check that by pressing Ctl+G, clicking on "Footnote" in the ensuing "Find and Replace" dialog box, and entering "1" (no quotes) in the window that says "Enter footnote number." If such a footnote already exists, the Find routine will take you right to it. Then you can use/keep/delete it as you see fit.

Otherwise, just go to the References tab and click on the expansion arrow at the bottom-right corner of the "Footnotes" group. In the ensuing dialog box, put "1" (no quotes) in the "Start at" window, and select whether you want numbering to be continuous, by section, or by page. Also select whether you want the whole document handled that way. Then click "Apply" and you're done.

Answer 3

I'm guessing you have a footnote that for some reason you can't see.  Maybe one that didn't get fully deleted.  I'd try looking at it under the Review tab and see if you can see what's going on there.