Footnotes function in Word2003 not working what do I do?

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I am trying to insert footnote reference in a word document and keep getting
the message Start At must be between 1 and 16383 for this format. In the
Insert, Reference box I have inserted footnote, bottom of page, start at 1 -
why is this not working, what am I doing wrong?
 
First test if a new blank document allows you to insert footnotes. If
it does, you know that the problem is with your specific document.

Then try the following: Display formatting marks. To do this, click
the ¶ button on the Standard toolbar. Paragraph marks will display as
¶ symbols. Now, copy the entire document, except for the final
paragraph mark, and paste it into your newly created document. Save
it. Inserting footnotes should work correctly again.

Note: If you cannot create footnotes (without the error message) from
a blank document, you need to rename normal.dot and have Word create a
new, fresh copy for you.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
news:[email protected]...
 
Stefan, thank you. Saving the original document into normal.dot allowed me
to insert the footnotes. Thank you very much you have save my life!!!!
 
Glad I could help.

Apparently, your document was (slightly) corrupt and recreating the
contents in a blank document fixed that.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
Thank you, Stefan! I had a problem with footnotes, too: I would insert a
new footnote, and, in the footnote pane of the window, the new footnote
number would appear in the middle of an old footnote. Stefan's suggestion to
rename normal.dot did the trick. Thanks!
 
Glad I could help, and thank you for the feedback.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
A different problem with footnotes. In a longish Word (Word/Office 2003)
document with several footnotes and cross references the first few footnotes
appear in Print Layout and will print, all the others seem hidden. They show
on mouseover and in Normal view. They appear if you change from footnotes to
endnotes but are lost again if you go back to footnotes. If you try to add a
footnote on the pages with the hidden footnotes it adds the number but
doesn't give you anywhere to write at the bottom of the page. What has
happened? There are tables in the document, but some footnotes that work are
in them; some that don't aren't. Any help would be appreciated
 
It might be corruption....you can try the tricks here ON A COPY of the
documents.
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

First, however, if you are Tracking Changes, that causes footnotes to do odd
things. Are you?

And I assume someone hasn't used hidden text on all the problematic
footnotes (in which case the text would have little dots under it when you
can see it).
 
Many thanks for the very helpful suggestions - tried them all to no avail.
Tried various ways of dealing with a corruption. None made any difference to
the problem - incidentally there is only one section - no section breaks in
the document. It just suddenly stops showing the footnotes at the bottom of
the page after page 11 of a 30-page document! If you try to put a new
footnote in after page 11 it puts in the number but doesn't give you the
option to add text below. Same problem if you lift it a few pages at a time
into a clean Word document
Not in Track changes
Not hidden text
I'm flummoxed but thanks again for the help - interesting to see the note on
corrupted docs in any case!
 
If you'd like, send me the document to look at. One thing you might check
one, though. We've seen people who inadvertently got started typing document
text into the endnotes (using Print Layout view--it would be unlikely anyone
would do this in the Endnote pane). It seems less likely one could do this
with footnotes, but it's worth checking on.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
i tried to do what you said but it still did not work. The footnotes options
isn't highlighted is there a way i can get it to work. there is no error
message just doesnt work
 
Look in Tools | Macro | Macros and see if there is a macro named
InsertFootnote or InsertFootnoteNow; if so, it is highjacking the built-in
command.

Interestingly, this error message has been cited in numerous question
threads, but I can't find any in which there was any resolution, and there
doesn't seem to be anything in the MSKB about it. The universal suggestion,
however, seems to be document corruption. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
thanks for your help its working now :D

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Look in Tools | Macro | Macros and see if there is a macro named
InsertFootnote or InsertFootnoteNow; if so, it is highjacking the built-in
command.

Interestingly, this error message has been cited in numerous question
threads, but I can't find any in which there was any resolution, and there
doesn't seem to be anything in the MSKB about it. The universal suggestion,
however, seems to be document corruption. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
Click to expand...
 
Interestingly, this error message has been cited in numerous
question
threads, but I can't find any in which there was any resolution, and
there
doesn't seem to be anything in the MSKB about it. The universal
suggestion,
however, seems to be document corruption.
Click to expand...

Well, the start at number cannot be set outside the legal range even
via VBA, so I guess document corruption is the only remaining
explanation. :-)

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
 
I have the same problem on a 180 page document. The footnotes work fine in the first 100 pages, but there after they disappear. They exist in the same way as described above. If they are converted to endnotes you can view them, but converting back to footnotes, after pg 100 they are not there?

Has any solution been found or fixes been made by Microsoft 3 years down the line?

Many Thanks



=?Utf-8?B?T3BzaW1hdGg=?= said:
Many thanks for the very helpful suggestions - tried them all to no avail.
Tried various ways of dealing with a corruption. None made any difference to
the problem - incidentally there is only one section - no section breaks in
the document. It just suddenly stops showing the footnotes at the bottom of
the page after page 11 of a 30-page document! If you try to put a new
footnote in after page 11 it puts in the number but doesn't give you the
option to add text below. Same problem if you lift it a few pages at a time
into a clean Word document
Not in Track changes
Not hidden text
I'm flummoxed but thanks again for the help - interesting to see the note on
corrupted docs in any case!
--
Opsimath



"Daiya Mitchell" wrote:

> It might be corruption....you can try the tricks here ON A COPY of the
> documents.
> http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm
>
> First, however, if you are Tracking Changes, that causes footnotes to do odd
> things. Are you?
>
> And I assume someone hasn't used hidden text on all the problematic
> footnotes (in which case the text would have little dots under it when you
> can see it).
>
>
>
> On 8/29/06 9:17 AM, "Opsimath" wrote:
>
> > A different problem with footnotes. In a longish Word (Word/Office 2003)
> > document with several footnotes and cross references the first few footnotes
> > appear in Print Layout and will print, all the others seem hidden. They show
> > on mouseover and in Normal view. They appear if you change from footnotes to
> > endnotes but are lost again if you go back to footnotes. If you try to add a
> > footnote on the pages with the hidden footnotes it adds the number but
> > doesn't give you anywhere to write at the bottom of the page. What has
> > happened? There are tables in the document, but some footnotes that work are
> > in them; some that don't aren't. Any help would be appreciated
>
> --
> Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
> Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
> MacWord Tips:
> What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>
>
Click to expand...
 
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