Footnotes
Word automatically creates footnotes as list-based numbering.
The number in the text is actually a cross-reference to the number of the footnote. Word automatically numbers the footnote paragraphs and creates the cross-reference when you insert the footnote.
Footnote numbering tends to be very stable. Difficulty can arise when pasting text that contains footnotes from document to document, although it is rare. It is also possible to get problems with footnotes that have multiple references. Sometimes, the cross-reference field for one or more of the references gets broken and calls either in the wrong footnote or none at all.
If a footnote appears on a different page from the page in which the footnote reference occurs, this is the result of a known bug; and the fix is to define the paragraph formatting of your body text to have exact line spacing.
When fixing footnote numbering, you must first find out whether you are dealing with the original footnote reference or a subsequent cross-reference. If it is a cross-reference, you can simply delete it and re-create it. If you delete the original footnote reference, you will also delete the footnote, so don't do that. If your footnote numbers are out of sequence, chances are one or more of the references is not actually a footnote. To find out, double-click it: if it is a footnote, the footnote editing window opens, if it isn't, nothing happens.