Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Changing the Footnote Separator.
If you are using footnotes in Word, you have control over where they appear in your document. In other issues of WordTips you learned that you can place them at the end of the text on a page, or at the bottom of the page itself. Regardless of the placement, Word can print a separator between your main document text and the footnotes. The default separator is a solid line, but you can either change or delete the footnote separator, as desired.
To change the footnote separator, follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Show Notes dialog box.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6033) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing the Footnote Separator.
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2020-06-23 17:16:49
Rebecca Zimmerman
If I could only change one line separator.
2019-12-02 10:21:59
Andrew
I can never remember how to activate the various panes I only ever rarely need to access, like the footnote separator. So I devised this little macro to do the remembering for me.
Andy.
Sub SelectAndShowPane()
Const WindowTitle As String = "SelectAndShowPane"
Dim answer As String
Dim panetype As Integer
answer = InputBox( _
"0. No display." & vbCr & _
"1. Primary Header." & vbCr & _
"2. First Page Header." & vbCr & _
"3. Even Pages Header." & vbCr & _
"4. Primary Footer." & vbCr & _
"5. First Page Footer." & vbCr & _
"6. Even Pages Footer." & vbCr & _
"7. Footnotes." & vbCr & _
"8. Endnotes." & vbCr & _
"9. Footnote Continuation Notice." & vbCr & _
"10. Footnote Continuation Separator." & vbCr & _
"11. Footnote Separator." & vbCr & _
"12. Endnote Continuation Notice." & vbCr & _
"13. Endnote Continuation Separator." & vbCr & _
"14. Endnote Separator." & vbCr & _
"15. Comments." & vbCr & _
"16. Page Header." & vbCr & _
"17. Page Footer." & vbCr & _
"18. Revisions." & vbCr & _
"19. Revisions at bottom." & vbCr & _
"20. Revisions at left.", WindowTitle, "20")
If answer = "" Then Exit Sub ' User clicked cancel or entered nothing
On Error GoTo InvalidResponse
panetype = CInt(Trim(answer))
On Error GoTo 0
If panetype < 0 Or panetype > 20 Then GoTo InvalidResponse
On Error GoTo PanelError
ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = panetype
Exit Sub
InvalidResponse:
MsgBox "Invalid response.", vbExclamation, WindowTitle
Exit Sub
PanelError:
MsgBox "Error in showing pane type " & panetype & ": " & Err.Description, vbExclamation, WindowTitle
Exit Sub
End Sub
2019-11-30 02:44:08
Bob Eisenberg
Will Microsoft ever make footnote format options DIRECTLY available from Page Layout view.
2019-11-29 12:23:28
Richard
Allen... Wow, that setting is buried deep! Thank you for this precise guidance.
One bit of additional information for fellow readers: I wanted to change the color of the separator line to be medium-gray. Turns out that the line is controlled by the FONT settings. (I thought incorrectly that it would be part of Borders and Shading.) I followed the instructions here, selected the line, changed the font color, and voila.
2017-03-07 08:48:21
Grant: Just like with Marlene, you need to perform step 1 -- you need to be in Draft view. If you aren't, you'll never see the drop-down mentioned in step 5.
-Allen
2017-03-06 23:17:29
Grant
Unfortunately does not seem to work with Word 2016 . I can't get beyond step 3!
2016-08-18 09:24:46
allen@sharonparq.com
Marlene: Note step 1 -- you have to be viewing your document in Draft view.
-Allen
2016-08-17 23:35:07
Marlene Smith-Baranzini
Can you give instructions for working on a PC with Word 2013. The Show Notes window doesn't have a drop down that I can find that allows the choice of viewing either fns or endnotes.
Thanks!
2016-07-29 15:25:03
Amy Christian
I have been using Word for years and years and yet can never remember how to do this. Thanks for the quick instructions that work!
2016-05-24 22:38:40
Joyce
THANKS! This was the only answer, out of all the pages I looked at, that WORKED. :)
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
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