Cannot Remove Horizontal Line at End of Page

The article at http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/TroublesomeLines.htm covers every kind of line that can be inserted in a Word document. The most likely part, from your description, is http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/TroublesomeLines.htm#HorizontalLines.

If you still can't find the magic incantation to remove the line, and if you don't mind sharing the document, you can email it to me at either of the addresses listed at https://jay-freedman.info/contact/contact.htm. I'll figure it out and return the fixed document to you.

I tried everything in that article you suggested and nothing worked. I didn't want to send you the entire document because it contains some sensitive information. So, I tried deleting all the pages before and after the offending page and wanted to send you just that one page. Simply copying the text on that page didn't include the horizontal line.

I noticed that after cutting all that text the line had disappeared. I restored the cut pages and the line reappeared. I then cut a few words at the end of the final sentence on the prior page (the page before the one that has the line on it) and the line was still there. I then deleted the entire last line of that page and the line disappeared. 

That sentence on the prior page has a footnote on one word. Deleting the footnote removed the horizontal line. Reinserting it on a word in the second to last sentence and all is well. The strange thing is that the footnote text from that footnote displays properly on the page where it should display, not on the following page with the horizontal line.

The other strange behavior is that the offending footnote line (horizontal line) is as I said before covers the entire page width not the shorter footnote line that appears in all my other pages.

It's fixed, but I am curious as to what might be going on with Word.

Thanks for your suggestions and offer to look at the document.

Paul

I believe that the line that you saw was the Footnote Continuation Separator, which does extend across the full width of the page

While the Footnote Separator is a shorter line

After I replied to Jay I did some more reading and found information about footnote continuation separators. What I don't understand is why it should be there when the footnote text is on the correct page under the footnote separator. In addition the footnote text does not extend across the page so there is nothing to "continue".

In addition, why changing the footnote to the line above the last one on that page should make any difference at all.

Now that you've identified the line as a footnote continuation separator, I can explain why it appeared. The key fact is the presence of two paragraph marks after the line.

If the page that contains the footnote reference and the one-line footnote is completely filled (down to the top of the footer area), and the end of the footnote contains one or more empty paragraph marks, those empty paragraphs will be forced to the next page. That will result in a footnote continuation separator with "nothing" (just paragraph marks) below it.

Word won't let you delete the last empty paragraph mark, nor will it allow you to select both/all of the empty paragraph marks and delete them in one go. What you can delete is the paragraph mark at the end of the footnote text on the previous page plus all except the last of the empty paragraph marks. That will remove the continuation.

I'm not sure I understand. Here is the footnote section on the previous page. I don't see anything different about this section of footnotes than all others in the document. Could you explain further. When 122 is moved to the word "third:" then the continuation separator on the following page disappears.

Many thanks to both of you. I understand it now.

Paul