You'll need to use the "Below text" option instead of "Bottom of page," but
this will give you an uneven bottom margin. See
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/BottomLine.htm

Signature
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
> My dissertation requirements demand a consistent distance of 12 points (or
> a
> single space) to the text above the footnote separator on every page. Some
> pages are at the required distance, but a few have considerably more
> distance
> between the footnote separator and the text. How do I fix this problem?