You aren't the only company that experiences this problem. Welcome to the wonderful world of MS Weird 97. The footer section is an automated feature in Word and as such there are the usual problems with it.
Word isnt really up to the task of handling big documents and if you are going to be making various updates and version changes you will need to consider a more powerful doc management system.
The first one that springs to mind is FrameMaker, which is produced by Adobe. This is a big boys publishing tool which allows for alot more possibilities than Word. I am currently trying to implement a new publishing system in my department (I manage the documentation dept for a software company), and can maybe pass along some ideas. If you want to drop me an email we can cry into our coffee together.
[This message has been edited by Flypuppy (edited 25 January 2001).]