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: Positioning the Footnote Separator.

Positioning the Footnote Separator

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 30, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007 and 2010

When Jim prints his document, the footnotes appear as they should at the bottom of each page. Just above the footnotes and below the page's text is the footnote separator. It lines up with the indented first line of a normal paragraph. Jim would rather have the footnote separator align to the left column, rather than being indented.

The footnote separator is inserted, automatically, by Word in its own paragraph. As a paragraph, you can easily format it just as you would any other paragraph. Follow these steps:

Make sure you are viewing your document in Draft view. (Click on the Draft View icon on the status bar of the document.)
Display the References tab of the ribbon.
Click Show Notes.
If you have both footnotes and endnotes defined in your document, Word displays the View Footnotes dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The View Footnotes dialog box.

Click on the View Footnote Area radio button.
Click on OK.
Using the Footnotes drop-down list at the top of the Footnotes window, choose Footnote Separator. The current separator appears in the window, and the insertion point should be within the separator.
Use Word's regular formatting tools to change the paragraph indentation on the separator.
Click on Close.

While the above works just fine, there is one other thing you might want to keep in mind. By default, the Footnote Separator and the other separator lines used by footnotes and endnotes all use the Normal style. If these lines start showing some strange formatting characteristics, it is more than likely because you've made some changes in how the Normal style is defined. Besides the steps already outlined, there are two other ways around this problem.

First, you can make a personal rule that you never use the Normal style for any of your regular document text. Pick another style—perhaps Body Text—or create your own custom styles to use for your text. That way the Normal style remains unchanged and you won't have unintended consequences such as you see with the Footnote Separator line.

The second approach is to define a custom style that you intend on using for your separator lines. You can then, within the footnote area, apply the style to the separator lines. In this way you can use the Normal style for other purposes, and as you change that style it won't affect the custom style you applied to the separator lines. (Of course, if the custom style is based on the Normal style, you might get some "trickle down" formatting that affects how the custom style looks whenever you make changes to the Normal style. The solution is to make sure that your custom styles are not based on the Normal style.)

Additional information about formatting the Footnote Separator and other separators can be found at the Word MVP site:

http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/NoteSeparators.htm

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12312) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Positioning the Footnote Separator.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Understanding Monospace Fonts

Information in a worksheet needs to be displayed using fonts. If you understand the two different types of fonts ...

Discover More

Adding Ampersands in Headers and Footers

Place an ampersand into the text of a page header or footer, and you might be surprised to see it missing in your ...

Discover More

Exiting a For ... Next Loop Early

If you use For ... Next loops in your macros, make sure you give a way to jump out of the loop early. That way you can ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Heavy-Duty Footnotes

Word allows you to add footnotes to a document, but they are rather straightforward and simple in their application. If ...

Discover More

Deleting All Footnotes

Tired of all those footnotes hanging on the bottom of each page in your document? You can get rid of them in one step, as ...

Discover More

Footnotes in Two Columns

When laying out how your printed pages will look, you might want to place your footnotes into more than one column. The ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 7 + 0?

2022-10-07 11:28:01

Sophie

This is so amazingly helpful! Thank you! You've just saved my assignment!

2021-07-18 15:34:36

Tara

Exactly what I needed! Thank you so much!

2020-11-30 01:10:06

Gilbert

This was really helpful! Answered what I needed. Thank you.

2020-07-09 07:16:27

Lyn Yeowart

This told me exactly what I needed to know! Thanks so much!

2020-06-01 08:39:13

Lynda Schuurs

Thankyou so much Allen for this information about editing the Footnote separator, and thankyou too for including the further comments about how one may have managed to make unwanted changes to that paragraph area in the first place. Most invaluable. Best wishes, Lynda

2020-01-13 06:51:20

Moshe

thank you sir!!!!!!!

2019-10-24 06:49:26

Omar

Thank you very much, your site has been a great resource for a long time!

2019-05-24 09:28:08

Jan MOENS (Mr.)

In previous versions of Word, the separator line would appear between the text of the column and the list of footnotes associated with each column. In Word Office 365, the footnote separator only appears between the text of the first column and the footnotes associated with the first column, but not between the text and the footnotes of the other columns. Is there a way to make it appear below every column?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Jan

2019-04-21 12:45:42

David Stubbs

Hi Allen!

Every time I search for some esoteric Word adjustment, I wind up on our site. Well done, man!

With regard to https://wordribbon.tips.net/T012312_Positioning_the_Footnote_Separator.html:

In Step 8, "Word's regular formatting tools" does not seem to apply to the horizontal ruler, where even clicking on it shifts focus away from the Footnote Separator back to the main document.

However, the Right-Click -> Paragraph option enables setting Indentation -> Special to None, shifting the separator line beginning (not the end), to the left margin.

Also, Step 9's "Click on close" was a bit difficult to fathom as no Close button was obvious. It is, of course, at the upper right of the panel. But even as a Word user from the first version, I had difficulty with your instruction. Recommend "Click on close at the top right of the panel."

Hope that helps!

Many thanks, again.

David Stubbs
Vancouver WA

2019-04-18 21:54:53

Sylvain Jalbert

This one was hard to find, thanks.

2018-12-13 03:18:48

shahrad

thank you in advance.
I had got completely baffled since I read this page.
in footnote part when I would to add footnote in text the separator located in right while I would put in left. finally I got in draft mode I can modify it.

2018-09-26 10:18:41

Louise

Brilliant! Exactly what I wanted for a recalcitrant footnote!

2018-03-01 22:36:40

TNG

Thank you, this was just what I was looking for

2018-02-21 13:43:28

Josh Danehower

This was awesome! Super helpful. Thank you!

2017-11-27 13:03:27

Siyu Tao

Great guide! Worked out!

2017-11-15 03:03:26

Jan Milter Ehlers

Great guide.
If the separator is placed vertically strange (in my situation in the middle of the page) it helps to click the reset button shown to the right of the dropdown at step 8 above.

2017-11-12 16:03:38

Stephen Baldwin

Thank you Allen.
Just the job. Problem solved!
Rgds
SteveB

2017-10-14 15:50:37

Anas AbuDaqa

Thank you very much. Very helpful

2017-09-13 09:32:38

Andrew

@KWON Jeongkee
You can start by modifying the paragraph attributes of the "Footnote Text" style, e.g., by adding a first line indent to it.

2017-01-17 06:46:38

KWON Jeongkee

I am struggling with this yearlong problem about Word 10.

Could I just know how I can prevent the footnote reference number from appearing at the start of a line?

Kind regards,

Jeongkee

2016-12-26 18:30:49

Keshava Prakash

Thanks for the suggestion

2016-11-24 10:55:43

Ken

Thanks - very helpful!

2016-11-17 16:09:27

Gabriel Vaz

OMG!!!
Im so thankful for that!
This opened to me a whole other area of possibly solving bizarre unreacheable MS Word settings!

2016-11-06 15:54:08

thank it was usefull

2016-07-24 08:23:44

Nida

This website is very helpful. I just found the solution for what i have been looking for. thank u so much, great work!!

2016-07-22 01:07:34

Great! solved my problem!

2016-01-05 04:04:54

Roswitha

For me, this works fine for positive indents. When defining a negative indent, the "negative" part of the separator line is hidden.
How do I make it show?
I am using Word 2010.

2015-12-07 14:38:40

Mohammad

Thank you!

2015-10-29 08:00:56

Mike

Thanks for the 2013 info - it worked for me.

2015-06-28 19:53:15

Ted Duke

Possibly a Microsoft change, but the backspace key did not work for me on June 28, 2015. However, a somewhat more precise way will work. Steps 1 through 3 remain the same. Step 4 does the trick.

1) Use View tab to set Draft view
2) On References tab click Show Notes
3) Click down arrow at end of field in the top bar of footnote display area and select Footnote Separator

4) Page Layout Tab: In Paragraph under the Indent heading, adjust the upper Left number to move the separator. Negative numbers move it to the left. Aligning it with text depends on your ability to "eyeball" it so far as I could tell.

2015-06-23 12:47:26

Sharon Lippincott

Thanks for the tip. I'm using Word 2013, which is a bit different, but using your tip, I was able to muddle through to remove the indent from a line. Bread crumbs follow:
1) Use View tab to set Draft view
2) On References tab click Show Notes
3) Click down arrow at end of field in the top bar of footnote display area and select Footnote Separator

In my case, I clicked the line and backspaced to remove the indentation.

That did the trick. :-)

2015-05-05 15:29:16

Vitaliy

Thanks!

2015-03-29 01:48:08

Nahush Khubalkar

Thank you so much. I was looking exactly for that information. I could do the task within seconds. Thanks once again.

Nahush Khubalkar
India

2012-11-17 08:12:17

Charles Lawrence

Hi, Allen !

Thanks for this piece of informative writing. Would definitely try it out.

Regards.

Charles.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.