I have a problem where if I cut text from my thesis and paste it elsewhere in the same document, the "footnote reference" style of the number (in the footnote section) will paste as "default paragraph" style rather than the original footnote reference style. (This seems to only happen some of the time, not always, or I certainly would have noticed sooner.)



The pasting preference (for within document) is set to "merge formatting" - trying to swap upon pasting to "keep original" or "use destination style" will inexplicably apply "footnote style" to the main text (with the same issue still affecting the footnote reference in the footnote section). This is driving me crazy.

Any advice? I've looked through possible parallels in a search of "footnote reference" but the only one that sounded like it had a similar problem only had an after-the-fact fix. I want to stop this happening (and preferably understand why it's happening). In the attached example, I pasted a couple of sentences at the end of another sentence which had "normal" styling on it: [image of the problem, with the recently pasted text and corresponding footnote in grey highlighting]:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/pwoI0.png

The template is my custom one, which I've been using and tweaking for a couple of years, if that is useful info. I can fix the ones that I've noticed by selecting the footnote reference number and applying the correct style and that works fine - and I'm aware of the method to search and replace the style afterwards, but I need this to not happen at all.

Edit: Cross-posted at microsoft word - Footnote references in the footnote section losing their style affiliation when cut and pasted from within the same doc - Super User due to relevant obscurity of issue. If the issue is resolved on either forum I will update the other to notify other users encountering the same issue.

Many thanks in advance!

emblaw

Cross-posted at microsoft word - Footnote references in the footnote section losing their style affiliation when cut and pasted from within the same doc - Super User.

For cross-posting etiquette, please read: A Message to Forum Cross-Posters Excelguru Help Site - A message to forum cross posters

Thank you for the heads-up. I will amend (both posts) appropriately. I had full intention of following either post up by marking it answered and linking to the other - it did not however occur to me to actually include a link to my cross-post.

I might be worth checking your copy/paste option settings. A precautionary repair of Word wouldn't go astray, either.

It's also possible the document has acquired some of corruption. Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.

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

I did a repair of Word and also tried the trick for a corrupt document, neither had an effect. I then had another look at my advanced copy/paste setttings and set them all to default.

This seems to fix it - i.e. using "merge styles" (in the pasting-pop up) or "use destination styles" (in adv. settings) when pasting within the document will erase the footnote reference style from the footnote marker. This seems... not how it's meant to be, to put it mildly. Would be curious to know whether this is in fact normal word behaviour that other can replicate...?

But at least I think I can cut and paste now without needing to double check my footnotes every single time, so thanks!