Footnote repair
Thesis footnote formatting in Word
Footnotes should remain real Word footnotes. They should not become plain text at the end of the page, oversized body paragraphs, or lost links after formatting and PDF export.
Footnote formatting checklist
- Footnotes are inserted with Word footnote references, not typed manually.
- Footnote text is usually smaller than body text, often 10pt when body text is 12pt.
- Footnotes are single-spaced unless the university guide says otherwise.
- URL footnotes remain visible and are not replaced or invented.
- Reference markers in the body match the footnote text at the bottom of the page.
Why footnotes break during formatting
Footnotes can break when content is copied between documents, when a formatter rebuilds the Word file without preserving footnote XML, or when styles from another template override the footnote style.
What a safe repair preserves
A safe formatting repair keeps the academic text, footnote IDs, references, links, and citation content unchanged. The formatting layer can normalize font size and spacing, but it should not rewrite or invent footnote sources.