MS Word: Excessive space between separator and footnotes

Question

I'm using a template to write my thesis on MS Word and I'm having a problem with the footnotes. Whenever I insert one, too much space is left blank between the separating line and the text of the footnote itself, as shown in the following screenshot:

I'm already quite close to finishing the thesis, so ideally the solution shouldn't involve using another template or restyling the file myself from scratch in a new blank document.

Solution

1. Go to the View tab, then choose Draft.
2. Go to the References tab and click Show Footnotes.
3. In the drop-down list that appears in the Footnotes area, choose Footnote Separator.
4. Delete any extra spaces, carriage returns etc. It’s handy to have “show non-printing characters” switched on.
5. Repeat for the other one – I think it was Continuous Footnote Separator.
6. Go back to View and switch back to Print Layout.

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source: https://krysjez.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/quick-fix-space-before-footnotes-in-ms-word/

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Or

When viewing the footnote separator (in the footnotes pane), right-click and select Paragraph from the context menu. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Indents and Spacing tab, and make sure that Spacing Before is set to zero. You may also want to change the Line Spacing to "Single."

Also, to make sure no blank paragraphs is included with the separator, click the ¶ button on the Home tab. Paragraph marks are represented by pilcrows, ¶. Delete any excessive paragraphs if present.

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Source https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeversion_other-word/how-can-i-remove-the-space-above-the-footnote/6bcb9853-74d9-41c0-afd3-9a5c3394171c?auth=1

Comments

[James]

This was the first result in google, I am not sure if you tried it yet. I do not have word on this PC so I cannot test it.

[DavidPostill]

Please read How to reference material written by others and make sure you "block quote" quoted material (Markdown help). I've fixed it for you this time, but please pay attention to this in future.

[user1156544]

It did not work for me, still have the big space. But this was helpful: youtube.com/watch?v=m5aliyl2Kpc