Unwanted line on the bottom of footnotes

[madhavanandad24631746]

I'm getting an unwanted line under my footnotes (not using endnotes). There is supposed to be a line before, but when there is a single footnote (and only a single footnote, not when there are two or more) I'm getting a thin line on the bottom. There is no line set for the paragraph, nor is there any stroke weight being used. I'm not able to figure it out and I want to print asap.

Any comments?

[madhavanandad24631746]

[Barb Binder]

Can you show us Paragraph Style Options > General for your footnote style?

~Barb

[madhavanandad24631746]

Thank you very much for your kind help Barb. It's very frustrating. I don't see why I'm getting this problem.

[David Popham]

Can you provide a little more information, or perhaps a screenshot? Which version of InDesign are you using? Is the Rule Above for the footnotes displaying correctly? Does the line extend the full width of the text frame or does it just underline the footnote text? Are you using a paragraph style for the footnotes? If so, are there any local overrides showing ("+" next to the style name) if you select the text in the footnote paragraph? Are there any character styles applied that might be adding an underline? Is there perhaps a bottom Border applied to the paragraph?

[madhavanandad24631746]

Thank you David. I'm using Indesign 14.03. The line above the footnotes is working properly. The problematic line is just a hairline, it goes the full width of the text frame. If I hit enter after the footnote it just moves the line one space up (still the full width of the text frame). I tried changing the paragraph style for the footnotes to none, and the problem is still there. There is no "+" next to the style name as there is no style selected. Nor is there any bottom border applied to the paragraph.

If this is a wrestling match, so far it's Indesign 10, and myself 0 😞

I'm inserting some screenshots of the page and also the options selected in "document footnote options".

[madhavanandad24631746]

You can see in the above screenshot. The top line is supposed to be there, but I can't figure out why the lower line is there. It's not there on all of the many footnotes in this book, but is there on perhaps 20 pages. I went to "Document Footnote Options", but I didn't seen anything that would cause this. In another discussion here someone else had the same problem which was solved by changing the paragraph style in the Document Footnote Options. I changed it to, "No paragraph style", and the line is still there.

[Barb Binder]

Yes, I can see the line in your screen shot, but can't see why it is there. That is why I asked for a screen shot of your footnote style definition.

~Barb

[David Popham]

With the footnote selected, in the Paragraph Rules dialog, did you check to see whether both Rule Below and Rule Above were unchecked?

[madhavanandad24631746]

Thank you David. The "rule on" option is selected in Footnote options/Layout. I tried unselecting it. The result is that the top bar disappears, but the hairline below remains.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

You say there is no paragraph rule (line), but in your screenshot the line is on the baseline so that hints that either rule above or line below is indeed turned on (for a single line 'sentense' both types of rule would be drawn on the baseline).

[madhavanandad24631746]

Thank you Frans. 

The "rule on" option is selected in Footnote options/Layout. I tried unselecting it. The result is that the top bar disappears, but the hairline below remains. It would be a lot of extra work, but I would be willing to manually insert lines above each footnote entry, if unticking the "rule on" box in footnote options/layout, would make both lines go away, but it doesn't. When I tick it off the bottom line remains.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

Thank you for sharing the Footnote Options screen shots. Unfortunately, that dialog box only controls the rule above the notes, and not below.

So you aren't using a Paragraph style—and now I realize you mentioned that at the beginning. Adding one would be benefical, because you can control the formaatting of all the notes at one time, incuding disabling what I am guessing is a Ruling Line Below (or perhaps a Border below).

~Barb