Footer problem in Word 365

Question

My word documents automatically place extra returns when I edit my footers.  What used to be a 2 page document (with footers on 2 different pages) becomes a 5 page document because of all of the extra returns inserted.  Why is this happening and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

The issue is caused by having the “Enable click and type” facility activated under File>Options>Advanced>Editing options.

If you uncheck that facility, it will no longer occur.

Alternatively, if you wish to retain the use of that facility, access the footer by selecting Edit Footer from the Footer dropdown in the Header & Footer section of the Insert tab of the ribbon.

Answer 2

Hi Michelle5777,

 

Have you tired the suggestion shared by Doug? You are welcome to come back and share the result with us.

Regards,

Ivy

Michelle and I have been in contact via e-mail and she is aware of the fix that I posted here.

An alternative method of accessing the footer is to Right click in it and then click on Edit Footer

Answer 3

Which kind of merge is this?

Answer 4

Thank you for your help!  I am slowly figuring out that my issue is caused by multiple mail/merge fields located in the footer.  The more mail/merge fields the more returns it places in the document.  It should not be happening and was not an issue until this last update.

Answer 5

Pasting into a header or footer may add extra paragraph marks. However, you can delete the marks.

In case the underlying problem is something else, press Ctrl+Shift+8 to enable nonprinting marks, take a screen shot of your document, save it as a graphics file and upload the file to a message in this thread.