I've recently, very belatedly, switched from Word 2000 to Word 2007. I have a REALLY annoying problem now when trying to search through footnotes (or endnotes) in draft view.

When I'm in draft view and select "show notes", I get the notes in a separate pane at the bottom of the screen, so that I can see the text that the note is appended to in the top half of the screen. All fine so far.

The trouble is, if I try to search for an item within the notes (for example, to check whether a source has already been cited in a previous note), the bottom pane is automatically squeezed down, so that it accommodates only a couple of lines of text. This is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING, not least because it seems to be a feature that's been added on since previous versions of Word (or at least the 2000 version), and I can't see any sensible reason for it at all.



It means that, each time that happens, I have to manually drag the bar separating the panes back up so that I can properly see what I'm doing. Is there any way to "lock" the separator, so that this doesn't happen?

One request: please don't suggest, for example, that I use Print Layout view instead - I'm usually working with endnotes, and in PL view it's not possible to see both the note and the part of the main text it applies to.

Other than that, all suggestions welcome