[steff]

For your second question: Choose View | Header and Footer to activate
the header/footer area. Place the cursor in the first footer
paragraph. Choose Format | Paragraph. Click the Indents and Spacing
tab. Specify the desired Spacing Before and click OK.

Thak you very very much.

I already tried this way... but it does not work.
Let me explain:
This is my thesis degree work and i have:
a header with references to chapters and page numbers
a footer with just page number for the first page of a chapter.
Between header and footer i have body text and footnote.

Following your suggestion, i can change the height of the footer
itself, but if i lower the footer of 12 points, the footnote still
remains in the same position! even if i set zero points after the
footnote in its style... it does not go down!!!