Footnotes Don't Align with Bottom Margin

Question

I have a long Word for Mac 2011 document with a number of footnotes that are causing me headaches. They will not align to the bottom margin of the page. Instead there is some empty space between the end of the footnote and the bottom margin of the page (and footnotes are set to appear at the bottom of the page). This is problematic not only because it wastes space but also because it will look weird when the document (a book) is opened and you see a page without a footnote next to a page with a footnote. The page without the footnote will be longer (stretching further down and really using the bottom margin as break). I have tried changing the paragraph style in the footnotes, I had a look at the footer of the page, I tried to reduce the margin and enlarge an empty footer (to use this one as an alternative margin). None of this yielded and results. The publisher says it is a Word for Mac problem. Do you have any ideas/workarounds? Or do you know that there is no workaround? Your help is appreciated very much.

Answer 1

Thanks Bob. I think I have found the reason and a solution (of sorts). In my document, Word would leave space for the "Footnote Continuation Notice" although the respective footnote would not continue onto the next page and although, the "Footnote Continuation Notice" was basically empty (but formatted as a 13 pt font). So I reformatted this notice (draft view, footnotes etc...) to 1 pt size and Bob was my uncle, so to speak. ;-) Can one get rid of said notice entirely? I believe this is a malfunction of the programme. Why leave room for a notice if there's nothing to notify? Thanks again, Bob, for your reply. :-)

Answer 2

Turn on the non-printing characters (¶) to see if there is an empty paragraph below the footnote. This happens frequently due to unnecessary pressing of return after typing the footnote. If there is a ¶ below the footnote, just click on that line & press delete.

If that isn't the cause please provide a more detailed & specific description of the problem. A screen shot or, preferably, a sample file shared on OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. would be helpful.