Footnotes not printing correctly

Question

This problem just recently started and I don’t know what’s changed. I have been trying to print documents with footnotes at the bottom of the page. I have custom sized pages at 8.5 x 5.5 and I have it formatted to restart the numbering (letters) on each page. Everything looks correct on my print layout view and print preview pages. However, when I actually print, the footnote lettering becomes continuous and does not restart on each page. All the drivers and software on my printer are up to date and all diagnostics check out. It used to print correctly but for some reason it’s not printing correctly anymore.

Is there a fix for this?

Answer 1

If you open the PDF in Adobe Reader and press Ctrl+P to open the Print dialog, you should see, on the right, an image of your document that shows the defined size of the document and the default paper size. The example below shows an 11" x 17" document with Letter-sized paper selected.

In order to print this document on Letter paper, I would have to choose "Fit" or "Shrink oversized pages" or "Custom scale." But I can also click Page Setup... and choose a different paper size.

If I choose "11x17," the document fits without scaling. As it happens, my printer can't actually print 11x17, but I could send the PDF to a printer that could. The size you would be looking for is perhaps listed as "Statement." If you don't find it with your default printer selected, choose the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, which does list this size. Once you've created the PDF that size, you should be able to print it from your default printer (if your printer can print that size).

Answer 2

Hello Gregory,

Did you get a response ? My problem is the same as yours, I think : I am printing to pdf or to paper from Word 2013. I am in half-letter-size format with booklet layout. On screen, my footnote numbers restart on each page. But when I print either to paper or to pdf, the numbering changes and, on some pages, the numbers restart while on others the numbers are continuous. My assumption is that I have an extra section that is not showing in my search for sections. If I take the same document and switch to two pages per sheet instead of booklet layout, I get the same problem but on different pages. Wondering if there is a way to open the word document in a text editor and find the bit of code the corresponds to section breaks...

Are you saying that you want the footnote numbering to restart on each page? In that case, try running the macro below and see if that fixes the problem:

Sub SetFnotesRestartEachPage()

Dim s As Section

For Each s In ActiveDocument.Sections

'Restart footnotes on each page:

s.Range.FootnoteOptions.NumberingRule = wdRestartPage

Next s

End Sub

For installation instructions, see http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm.

Answer 3

Hello Gregory,

Did you get a response ? My problem is the same as yours, I think : I am printing to pdf or to paper from Word 2013. I am in half-letter-size format with booklet layout. On screen, my footnote numbers restart on each page. But when I print either to paper or to pdf, the numbering changes and, on some pages, the numbers restart while on others the numbers are continuous. My assumption is that I have an extra section that is not showing in my search for sections. If I take the same document and switch to two pages per sheet instead of booklet layout, I get the same problem but on different pages. Wondering if there is a way to open the word document in a text editor and find the bit of code the corresponds to section breaks...

Answer 4

Thank you for responding to my question. I tried saving my file as a PDF but that format will not allow me to print on 8.5 x 5.5 paper. Is there any way to fix this in Word?

Thanks again.

Answer 5

A possible work around could be to save the document as a pdf file and then print it from Adobe Reader.