Columnar footnotes: adjusting the space between

Question

Does Word 2016 allow you to adjust the space between footnote columns? I mean, independently of the number of columns in the text above?

In Word 2013 you get the default space of 36 points (½ inch) between columns. That's the default for both text columns and footnote columns. You can get a narrower space by narrowing the space between text columns, but that presupposes you want your text to be in columns, and I don't. Before purchasing Word 2016 -- I know, this is a unusual consumer demand -- would someone tell me whether the space between footnote columns can be adjusted independently of putting the text into columns?

There is a way to mask that wide default space, and that is to invoke the line between columns. That can be attractive, and you can see why the default is what it is. The control isn't under References | Footnote and Endnote, although you must first select 2 columns there for your footnote layout.

To get the dividing line, move to the main text. Select Page Layout | Columns and 2 columns. Check the "line between" box. Then revert to one column. The "line between" box goes grey but remains checked. Your footnote columns will have the line between. You will lose any adjustment made to the intercolumnar spacing.

What's the purpose? The page can be less boring, it looks better when you have a lot of short notes, and it saves some space.

Answer 1

Word 2016 behaves exactly like Word 2013 in this regard, including the line-between workaround that you described.

Answer 2

I wish I could offer some reassurance, but sometimes features that were used regularly by fairly large numbers of writers have been removed from Word without so much as an advance notice that they were being considered. In this case, your best hope is "benign neglect".

Answer 3

Thanks. In describing it as a workaround, it sounds as if you don't regard it as a deliberate feature. That makes me think, alas! it could disappear in a future release of Word.