Renumber footnotes

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I received a lengthy, heavily footnoted Word 2003 document from someone and there are periodic breaks in the footnote numbering. The document has only 1 section. Is there a way to start from the first footnote numbered 1 and renumber them automatically beginning with 1 onward?

Thanks in advance.

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Hard to know what’s going on there, without seeing an example document – if they are all true footnotes, then the numbers should renumber automatically. It is possible to specify to have footnote numbering restart for each new page or section, but in that case, they would restart at 1.

Is it possible to attach a copy of the problem document? – (remove any sensitive information before doing so)

Gary

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They are true footnotes. I don’t know what the user did to cause this issue or if he really “caused” it.
There are no section breaks. The document is fairly large, so posting it isn’t possible here.

I take it there isn’t a way to select the first footnote and cause a renumbering???

Hard to know what’s going on there, without seeing an example document – if they are all true footnotes, then the numbers should renumber automatically. It is possible to specify to have footnote numbering restart for each new page or section, but in that case, they would restart at 1.

Is it possible to attach a copy of the problem document? – (remove any sensitive information before doing so)

Gary

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I take it there isn’t a way to select the first footnote and cause a renumbering???

Have you tried the following:

Select first numbered footnote reference in the document.
Go to Insert > Reference >Footnote…
Change the setting in the Apply Changes dropdown to ‘Whole document’
Make sure it is set to Continuous and Start At: 1.
Then click the Apply button.

Does that do anything useful?

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Didn’t solve the problem. I suspect the user did something “strange” that I just can’t get my arms around.
When I did your suggestion, one of the footnotes that began a set of paragraphs where they were out of sequence, turned into a “1” but the other remained as they were (e.g., 36, 37, …).

Kevin

Have you tried the following:

Select first numbered footnote reference in the document.
Go to Insert > Reference >Footnote…
Change the setting in the Apply Changes dropdown to ‘Whole document’
Make sure it is set to Continuous and Start At: 1.
Then click the Apply button.

Does that do anything useful?

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Didn’t solve the problem. I suspect the user did something “strange” that I just can’t get my arms around.
When I did your suggestion, one of the footnotes that began a set of paragraphs where they were out of sequence, turned into a “1” but the other remained as they were (e.g., 36, 37, …).

Kevin

Just one other idea to try (maybe in a copy of the document) – convert all footnotes to endnotes (via Insert > Reference > Footnotes > Convert button), and then convert them back to footnotes. Don’t know if that will work, the thought being that maybe that might force a renumbering.

Gary

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GREAT idea…unfortunately, it didn’t do the trick. SIGH.

There are 180 footnotes on this 168 page dissertation document.

I hope the owner (or me) doesn’t have to re-do them. What a pain that would be.

Just one other idea to try (maybe in a copy of the document) – convert all footnotes to endnotes (via Insert > Reference > Footnotes > Convert button), and then convert them back to footnotes. Don’t know if that will work, the thought being that maybe that might force a renumbering.

Gary

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GREAT idea…unfortunately, it didn’t do the trick. SIGH.

There are 180 footnotes on this 168 page dissertation document.

I hope the owner (or me) doesn’t have to re-do them. What a pain that would be.

Hi kweaver,

Has the document been edited with ‘Track Changes’ on? Any footnotes attached to text marked as deleted might still be accounted for in the numbering, but not otherwise showing up in the document. Accepting/Rejecting the tracked changes might fix it.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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I agree with Paul, when auto numbering seems to skip over numbers it is usually because there are some items deleted while revision tracking is turned on. If you check for revisions then you may discover this to be the case.

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Upon further conversation w/the owner of the doc, I learned that he took independent chapters (documents) and copied and pasted them together to form a single document. I guess footnote numbers don’t increment automatically when you do that.

I think he’s going to have to fix them where they are “broken” in the series…and do it by hand.

I agree with Paul, when auto numbering seems to skip over numbers it is usually because there are some items deleted while revision tracking is turned on. If you check for revisions then you may discover this to be the case.

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If the document has been cobbled together from separate chapters and Word isn’t recognizing that the footnotes are now part of one single document, you could try “updating the codes” by selecting the entire document (Ctrl A) and pressing F9. That might work.

Let us know.

Jan

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All GREAT ideas, but none are working I’m sad to report.

The first 8 pages are fine and end with footnote 33. Then, for some reason, page 9 begins with footnote 35. There are other breaks in the numbering elsewhere as well.

I really appreciate everyone trying to come up with a solution. What a heartbreak in light of the time/effort it will be to have to have him re do the footnotes after 33.

If the document has been cobbled together from separate chapters and Word isn’t recognizing that the footnotes are now part of one single document, you could try “updating the codes” by selecting the entire document (Ctrl A) and pressing F9. That might work.

Let us know.

Jan

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What a heartbreak in light of the time/effort it will be to have to have him re do the footnotes after 33.

Good Heavens, no! How about the macro in [post=”401873″]Post 401873[/post]: “Many times you can repair messed-up footnotes with the macro below, which copies, deletes, and immediately re-inserts them.”

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That was kind of interesting to watch it ripple through the document. However, it managed to change footnote #1 to #48 for some reason. To me, that suggests there’s really something dramatically wrong with this document and the way the footnotes were created.

Good Heavens, no! How about the macro in [post=”401873″]Post 401873[/post]: “Many times you can repair messed-up footnotes with the macro below, which copies, deletes, and immediately re-inserts them.”

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That was kind of interesting to watch it ripple through the document. However, it managed to change footnote #1 to #48 for some reason. To me, that suggests there’s really something dramatically wrong with this document and the way the footnotes were created.

Hi kweaver,

If your footnotes are now starting at #48, simply insert a new footnote and, when doing so, use the ‘options’ button to set the numbering to start on 1. After you’ve inserted this footnote, you can delete it and the numbering should be OK.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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That almost did the trick (reminded that “almost” only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades). But, see below, what the macro ended up doing:

10 0Robert Fergus, comp., Fergus’ Directory of the City of Chicago (1839; reprint, Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1876), 31. For example, Dr. D. S. Smith lived over a drug store on the corner of Lake and Clark streets.

11 1For quote, see A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago, vol. 1 (1884; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975), 136-7.

12 2Chicago Daily Tribune (September 22, 1957), 3; Robert Fergus, comp., Fergus’ Directory of the City of Chicago (1839; reprint, Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1876), 68. To determine the population of Chicago in 1840 and 1843, I used data from the 1840 federal census and data for 1843 from the 1870 reprint of Chicago’s 1839 city directory.

etc., etc.

I now have these extra super-scripted numbers in the footnotes (10 0, 11 1, etc.)

Hi kweaver,

If your footnotes are now starting at #48, simply insert a new footnote and, when doing so, use the ‘options’ button to set the numbering to start on 1. After you’ve inserted this footnote, you can delete it and the numbering should be OK.

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Hi kweaver,

That suggests the extraneous numbers were already in the footnotes. It would be possible to use a macro to go through all the footnotes and delete any numbers at the start, but that might have undesirable effects on bookmarks that are meant to start with numbers.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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To me, that suggests there’s really something dramatically wrong with this document and the way the footnotes were created.

Could you try running this diagnostic (on the original document) and see whether it turns up anything interesting?

== Edit == Replaced v0.1 with v0.2 ==

[codebox]Sub FootnoteReporter()
‘ Calculate estimated footnote numbers; v0.2 jscher2000 7/30/2009
Dim fn As Word.Footnote, docSubject As Word.Document, docNew As Word.Document, _
lngSect As Long, lngLastSec As Long, lngNumRule As Long, lngStartFrom As Long, _
strEstNum As String
If ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Count > 0 Then
If MsgBox(“Create a report on this document’s footnotes?”, vbYesNo + vbQuestion) = _
vbNo Then Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox “ActiveDocument contains no footnotes!”
Exit Sub
End If
‘ Create a new document to contain the report
Set docSubject = ActiveDocument
‘Stop
Set docNew = Documents.Add
With docNew.Content
.InsertAfter “Footnotes in ” & docSubject.FullName & vbCrLf
For Each fn In docSubject.Footnotes
‘ Section footnote option settings
lngSect = fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
If lngSect lngLastSec Then
lngNumRule = docSubject.Sections(lngSect).Range.FootnoteOptions.NumberingRule
lngStartFrom = docSubject.Sections(lngSect).Range.FootnoteOptions.StartingNumber
.InsertAfter vbCrLf & “Section ” & lngSect & ” — Numbering rule: ” & _
Split(“Continuous|Section|Page”, “|”)(lngNumRule) & _
” Start from: ” & lngStartFrom & vbCrLf
lngLastSec = lngSect
End If
‘ Calculate estimated footnote reference number
Select Case lngNumRule
Case 0
strEstNum = CStr(fn.Index + lngStartFrom – 1)
Case Else
strEstNum = “TBD”
End Select
‘ Write out index, estimated number, p1s2 location, and whether hidden
.InsertAfter ” Index: ” & fn.Index & vbTab & _
IIf(AscW(fn.Reference.Text) = 2, “Estimated No. ” & strEstNum, _
“Literal Text ‘” & fn.Reference.Text & “‘”) & vbTab & _
“p” & fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndAdjustedPageNumber) & _
“s” & fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber) & _
IIf(fn.Reference.Font.Hidden = True, ” — Hidden Text”, “”) & RevType(fn) & vbCrLf
Next
End With
‘ Clean up objects
Set fn = Nothing
Set docSubject = Nothing
docNew.Activate
Set docNew = Nothing
End Sub

Function RevType(aFn As Word.Footnote) As String
‘ Check footnote reference number for potential deletion
With aFn.Reference.Revisions
If .Count > 0 Then
Select Case .Item(1).Type
Case wdRevisionDelete
RevType = ” — Deleted”
Case Else
RevType = ” — Revision (not deleted)”
End Select
Else
RevType = vbNullString
End If
End With
End Function[/codebox]

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Thanks for this. I pasted this into the Visual Basic Editor, but sorry to be so stupid…I don’t know what to do to run it.

Could you try running this diagnostic (on the original document) and see whether it turns up anything interesting?

== Edit == Replaced v0.1 with v0.2 ==

[codebox]Sub FootnoteReporter()
‘ Calculate estimated footnote numbers; v0.2 jscher2000 7/30/2009
Dim fn As Word.Footnote, docSubject As Word.Document, docNew As Word.Document, _
lngSect As Long, lngLastSec As Long, lngNumRule As Long, lngStartFrom As Long, _
strEstNum As String
If ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Count > 0 Then
If MsgBox(“Create a report on this document’s footnotes?”, vbYesNo + vbQuestion) = _
vbNo Then Exit Sub
Else
MsgBox “ActiveDocument contains no footnotes!”
Exit Sub
End If
‘ Create a new document to contain the report
Set docSubject = ActiveDocument
‘Stop
Set docNew = Documents.Add
With docNew.Content
.InsertAfter “Footnotes in ” & docSubject.FullName & vbCrLf
For Each fn In docSubject.Footnotes
‘ Section footnote option settings
lngSect = fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber)
If lngSect lngLastSec Then
lngNumRule = docSubject.Sections(lngSect).Range.FootnoteOptions.NumberingRule
lngStartFrom = docSubject.Sections(lngSect).Range.FootnoteOptions.StartingNumber
.InsertAfter vbCrLf & “Section ” & lngSect & ” — Numbering rule: ” & _
Split(“Continuous|Section|Page”, “|”)(lngNumRule) & _
” Start from: ” & lngStartFrom & vbCrLf
lngLastSec = lngSect
End If
‘ Calculate estimated footnote reference number
Select Case lngNumRule
Case 0
strEstNum = CStr(fn.Index + lngStartFrom – 1)
Case Else
strEstNum = “TBD”
End Select
‘ Write out index, estimated number, p1s2 location, and whether hidden
.InsertAfter ” Index: ” & fn.Index & vbTab & _
IIf(AscW(fn.Reference.Text) = 2, “Estimated No. ” & strEstNum, _
“Literal Text ‘” & fn.Reference.Text & “‘”) & vbTab & _
“p” & fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndAdjustedPageNumber) & _
“s” & fn.Reference.Information(wdActiveEndSectionNumber) & _
IIf(fn.Reference.Font.Hidden = True, ” — Hidden Text”, “”) & RevType(fn) & vbCrLf
Next
End With
‘ Clean up objects
Set fn = Nothing
Set docSubject = Nothing
docNew.Activate
Set docNew = Nothing
End Sub

Function RevType(aFn As Word.Footnote) As String
‘ Check footnote reference number for potential deletion
With aFn.Reference.Revisions
If .Count > 0 Then
Select Case .Item(1).Type
Case wdRevisionDelete
RevType = ” — Deleted”
Case Else
RevType = ” — Revision (not deleted)”
End Select
Else
RevType = vbNullString
End If
End With
End Function[/codebox]

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I don’t know what to do to run it.

As long as you have the editor open, and assuming the document with the footnotes is the active document in word, simply click in the procedure and press F5 to run it. Does that work? If not, you can try returning to the document, pressing Alt+F8 to display the Macros dialog, and then double-clicking FootnoteReporter.

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Thanks, that worked.

Here’s what I learned from this macro.

1) Footnote 34 is missing (but not reported in the macro)…the footnotes go from 33 to 35 without a 34.

2) The macro indicated that Index: 47 was “Estimated No. 47”

This type of reporting showed for a number of other entries as well.

Does this tell you something that might lead to a solution?

Thanks, in advance…

Kevin

As long as you have the editor open, and assuming the document with the footnotes is the active document in word, simply click in the procedure and press F5 to run it. Does that work? If not, you can try returning to the document, pressing Alt+F8 to display the Macros dialog, and then double-clicking FootnoteReporter.

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1) Footnote 34 is missing (but not reported in the macro)…the footnotes go from 33 to 35 without a 34.

2) The macro indicated that Index: 47 was “Estimated No. 47”

This type of reporting showed for a number of other entries as well.

As you know, a user can enter literal text for a footnote number, or they can let Word autonumber the notes. I could not figure out a way to ascertain the “actual” displayed value of an automatically numbered note, so those are listed as “Estimated.” The estimate is based on the position of the footnote in the footnotes collection, numbered from 1 starting at the beginning of the document, adjusted for any changes in the “Start From” number.

Could you save and post the report document? I don’t think it would contain anything confidential.

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