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FIX: This is not a valid action for footnotes MS Word error

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Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Key notes

SomeMicrosoft Wordusers have encountered an error that states,This is not a valid action for footnotes. This issue usually arises when attempting to delete extraneous carriage returns, or paragraph spacing, between footnotes at the end of document pages.

However, some of the carriage returns are footnote markers that you can’t delete without erasing the note itself.

Let’s see how you can erase additional carriage returns and spacing for footnotes without the error message.

How to fixThis is not a valid action for footnoteserror

1. Display the paragraph marks

One of the best ways to edit footnote spacing is to display the paragraph marks in Word. You can do that by pressing the ¶ button on Word’s Home tab. That will display paragraph breaks in the document. Having done that, you might see footnote marks as below.

1 Footnote 1¶

¶

2 Footnote 2¶

¶

3 Footnote 3¶

¶

4 Footnote 4¶

This gives you a clearer view of the paragraph breaks. If your footnote marks are the same as those in the example above, delete, with the Backspace key, the paragraph break symbols at the end of the numbered lines. Then the footnotes should be more like those shown below.

1 Footnote 1¶

2 Footnote 2¶

3 Footnote 3¶

2. Use a third-party Word recovery tool

Sometimes, Word errors occur because of corrupted documents.

There are numerous third-party programs that you can repair Word with. Not all of them are freeware, but most have a trial package you can add to Windows for a few weeks and potentially fix the error.

On this note, we recommend theStellar Phoenix Word Repairtool.

This is a very useful tool that can help you recover corrupted .doc or .dox files so that you can work on them normally, without any error message popping up.

Stellar Phoenix Word Repair can be downloaded for free. Plus, it features a very simple interface, and the recovery process is only two clicks away. The tool preserves the original formatting, rendering your documents in a usable form.

By assisting you in resolving practically all forms of Word file corruption difficulties, the software provides a high degree of flexibility. In addition, the utility offers a variety of repair solutions for dealing with small and major file corruption issues.

On a side note, this is a very simple, practical tool that does exactly what it promotes. So don’t expect a lot of advanced options.

⇒Get Stellar Phoenix Word Repair

3. Adjust paragraph indent and spacing

If you decide to keep using whatever tool you have at hand, you might find that you can fix the footnote spacing without deleting any paragraph breaks.

You can adjust indent and paragraph spacing for a specific note from the Paragraph window. This is how Word users can adjust before/after paragraph spacing for notes.

4. Set up a macro that erases double returns in footnotes

MS Word has a handy macro tool that can fix theNot a valid action for footnoteserror. As such, you canset up a macrothat erases all double returns from footnotes for you. I already have the code for such a macro, which you can set up as follows.

Sub CleanReturnsInNotes()

‘To clean returns in endnotes rather than footnotes,

‘change “Footnotes” to “Endnotes” in the following line:

NoteCount = ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Count

Selection.Find.ClearFormatting

Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting

With Selection.Find

.Text = “^p^p”

.Replacement.Text = ""

.Forward = True

.Wrap = wdFindContinue

.Format = False

.MatchCase = False

.MatchWholeWord = False

.MatchAllWordForms = False

.MatchSoundsLike = False

.MatchWildcards = False

End With

Selection.Find.Execute

On Error GoTo TrapTheError

While Selection.Find.Found

Selection.MoveLeft

‘The following line may trigger an error!

Selection.Delete

Selection.Find.Execute

Wend

GoTo TheEnd

TrapTheError:

ErrorCount = ErrorCount + 1

Selection.MoveRight

Selection.Delete

If ErrorCount < NoteCount Then Resume Next

TheEnd:

End Sub

Next, clickFileand select theClose and Return to MicrosoftWordoption. You’ll need to be in Draft view to run the macro. So click the View tab, and press theDraftbutton.

Now you can clickReferencesandShow Notes. Place your cursor at the very top of Word’s Notes pane. Select the View tab, clickMacrosand select the macro you just set up to clear returns in footnotes.

The macro will weave its magic when you press theRunbutton.

5. Erase all empty paragraph marks with a third-party tool

Kutools is an add-on that has a plethora of handy MS Word tools. One of those is aRemove Parsbutton on the Kutools tab that you can press to erase all empty paragraph marks or manual line breaks from a Word document.

So this tool might also help remove extraneous carriage returns from footnotes. The tool doesn’t come for free, but you can downloada free trial.

Note that this tool does not repair your document in case of corrupted details as Stellar Phoenix Word Repair does. It only helps with various time-consuming operations in Word.

So that’s how you can fix note spacing without aNot a valid action for footnoteserror. Just remember it’s how you’re editing the footnote carriage returns that’s generating the error message.

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Matthew Adams

Windows Hardware Expert

Matthew is a freelancer who has produced a variety of articles on various topics related to technology. His main focus is the Windows OS and all the things surrounding it.

He is passionate about the tech world, always staying up-to-date with the latest and greatest. With an analytical view, he likes problem-solving, focusing on errors and their causes.

In his free time, he likes to read and write about history and tries to always develop new skills.

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Matthew Adams

Windows Hardware Expert

He is passionate about everything surrounding Microsoft’s OS, focusing on troubleshooting guides & tips for everyday problems.