HELP! Un-editable Carriage Returns in Footnotes

I have carriage returns in all my footnotes, after the footnote separator bar (2 carriage returns) and before the footnotes. All footnotes are like this as if the formatting is corrupted. I can delete them all and put them all back in with the same format. I can change everything except I cannot select or backup over, or anyway delete those pesky horrific carriage returns. Help! I have to deliver this document in 2 hours!

They're not "in" the footnotes; they're "in" the footnote separator.

The way to access that -- and change its formatting, in case you don't
like the line length or its indent or whatever -- is to switch to
Draft View, then go to Show Footnotes (I don't remember how to do that
in earlier Word, but if you have a Ribbon, it's at the lower right of
the Footnotes group of the References tab).

You then get a window at the bottom of the document window with a bar
above it, and in that bar is a dropdown from which you access the
Separator. Choose that, and (since you have your Non-Printing
Characters turned on) you'll see some stray paragraphs down there.
Just delete them.

Go back to Print View, and all is copasetic!

On Nov 30, 2:53*pm, Maura wrote:
I have carriage returns in all my footnotes, after the footnote
separator bar (2 carriage returns) and before the footnotes. All
footnotes are like this as if the formatting is corrupted. I can delete
them all and put them all back in with the same format. I can change
everything except I cannot select or backup over, or anyway delete those
pesky horrific carriage returns. Help! I have to deliver this document
in 2 hours!

--
Maura

your answer totally fixed the problem, Peter, youre the man! i love when you can find a man who knows the answer and theres no need for further searching.. thanks!!
Kate

:-)

On Thursday, March 19, 2015 at 10:20:25 AM UTC-4, wrote:
your answer totally fixed the problem, Peter, youre the man! i love when you can find a man who knows the answer and theres no need for further searching.. thanks!!
Kate

Thank you, Peter. 3+ years later since you posted this--this is still the best solution and advice I could find for this problem. Been combing help pages and getting nowhere.

I hope the folks who maintain the newer help system at the MS web site see this!

On Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 4:31:57 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Thank you, Peter. 3+ years later since you posted this--this is still the best solution and advice I could find for this problem. Been combing help pages and getting nowhere.

On Friday, November 30, 2012 at 5:34:02 PM UTC-6, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
They're not "in" the footnotes; they're "in" the footnote separator.

The way to access that -- and change its formatting, in case you don't
like the line length or its indent or whatever -- is to switch to
Draft View, then go to Show Footnotes (I don't remember how to do that
in earlier Word, but if you have a Ribbon, it's at the lower right of
the Footnotes group of the References tab).

You then get a window at the bottom of the document window with a bar
above it, and in that bar is a dropdown from which you access the
Separator. Choose that, and (since you have your Non-Printing
Characters turned on) you'll see some stray paragraphs down there.
Just delete them.

Go back to Print View, and all is copasetic!

On Nov 30, 2:53*pm, Maura wrote:
I have carriage returns in all my footnotes, after the footnote
separator bar (2 carriage returns) and before the footnotes. All
footnotes are like this as if the formatting is corrupted. I can delete
them all and put them all back in with the same format. I can change
everything except I cannot select or backup over, or anyway delete those
pesky horrific carriage returns. Help! I have to deliver this document
in 2 hours!

--
Maura

Ditto - huge help, exactly what I needed. Thank you!!

On Friday, November 30, 2012 at 2:53:35 PM UTC-5, Maura wrote:
I have carriage returns in all my footnotes, after the footnote
separator bar (2 carriage returns) and before the footnotes. All
footnotes are like this as if the formatting is corrupted. I can delete
them all and put them all back in with the same format. I can change
everything except I cannot select or backup over, or anyway delete those
pesky horrific carriage returns. Help! I have to deliver this document
in 2 hours!




--
Maura

Peter still works! Thank you this was driving me crazy

This was so helpful Peter Thank you so much

On Tuesday, August 9, 2016 at 3:44:16 PM UTC-4, wrote:

This was so helpful Peter Thank you so much

Nice that things haven't changed through four years of upgrades!