I am writing an academic article and have too much space between the text and the footnote separator (especially on pages 4 and 5 of the attached document).



I see that this is a common problem, but the information I have found on the Internet is not helping. How can I minimize the space after the text before the separator??

Attached Files

1L Journal Note.docx (37.5 KB, 23 views)

The effect you're seeing is the result of your choices of font, point size, line spacing paragraph spacing, header/footer layout & content and page borders. Changing any of the first four might reduce the variability between pages.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I realize that, but unfortunately the font, point size, spacing, page borders, and footer layout are all in accordance with the required specifications of my paper.

I was trying to figure out a way to reduce the spacing while maintaining these parameters. It's just odd that on some pages, Word will places lines right before the footnote separator, while on others, it will leave several lines' worth of space.

I tried to fool around with the "keep with the next" option and such, to no avail.

The 'keep with next' parameter, when applied to all paragraphs, as it is in your attachment, is essentially meaningless. It should only be used on paragraphs that do need to be kept on the same page as whatever follows (eg headings).

The widow/orphan control, as referred to by Cobb78, will have minimal effect (none on page 4, for example).

Regarding page 4, the main reason for the gap is that the first line on page 5 contains a footnote reference. Since Word can't fit both that line and its footnote on page 4, the line goes to page 5. If you were to move the footnote reference to a later line (and I'm not saying that this is appropriate here), then line could move up. Reorgnising the text, including, perhaps, adding more text between footnotes 21 & 21, could likewise result in less space at the bottom of the page. Deleting, say, footnote 20 would also achieve the same result. Ultimately, you'll have to decide when it's more important to have/not have (ie padding) some particular content than to worry about the page layout.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Perhaps select all and allow orphans?