Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Footnotes and Endnotes' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Adding Endnotes in Text Boxes
Text boxes and endnotes are both great tools you can use within a document. Problem is, you cannot use them together—Word doesn't allow you to add endnotes within a text box. This tip looks at how you can get round this problem.

   Adding Footnotes to Endnotes
Word does footnotes. Word does endnotes. Word doesn't do footnotes within endnotes. Here's a discussion as to why and what you might do about it.

   Adding Information after the Endnotes
Endnotes appear at the end of the document, right? Not always, as Word provides a way that you can actually add as much information as you want after the endnotes.

   Automatically Adding Tabs in Footnotes
When you add a footnote to a document, Word's normal formatting adds a space after the footnote number and before the body of the footnote. You may want Word to use a tab instead of the space. There are a couple of ways you can approach this problem, as discussed in this tip.

   Brackets around Footnote References
When you insert footnotes in a document, Word allows you to modify the formatting applied to the footnote references. What it doesn't allow is for you to specify any extra characters that should be included with the reference. Here's a way you can add any extra characters you want, such as a set of brackets.

   Center-column Footnotes
Ever want to change the formatting of your footnotes? This tip explains what you can and can't do in Word.

   Changing How Footnote References Appear
Footnote references normally appear as superscripted digits, both in the main body of your document and in the footnotes area. Unfortunately, changing them is not that easy. If you want them to appear differently, then you need to apply some workarounds as described in this tip.

   Changing the Footnote Continuation Notice
When a footnote needs to span two printed pages, Word prints a continuation notice at the end of the footnote being continued. This tip explains how you can change the wording in that notice.

   Changing the Footnote Continuation Separator
When you add a really long footnote to a document, it could be that the entire footnote might not fit on the page where the footnote reference appears. If that is the case, Word continues the footnote to a subsequent page. You can control the separator that is used for such continuations.

   Changing the Footnote Separator
When you print a document that uses footnotes, Word normally places a small line between the end of the document body text and the start of the footnotes on the page. You can change this line to anything you want by following the steps in this tip.

   Changing the Way Endnotes Are Numbered
Word is flexible on how it numbers your endnotes. This tip shows how easy it is to make the changes to the numbering system.

   Changing the Way Footnotes Are Numbered
Most footnotes in a document start numbering with the number 1 and proceed from there through the rest of your document. It doesn't have to be that way, though. You can customize the way that your footnotes appear by using the information in this tip.

   Comments in Endnotes
Able to add comments everywhere, except in endnotes? This seems to be a limitation in Word, but here are some ways to work around the problem.

   Continuous Formatting for Footnotes
If you've got a lot of short footnotes in a document, you might be looking for a way to save space by "crunching up" the footnotes by running them together in a single paragraph on each page. This tip explores why this can't be easily done in Word.

   Controlling Endnote Placement
Endnotes are often used in technical and scholarly documents. You can control exactly where the endnotes appear in your document by following the steps presented in this tip.

   Controlling Footnote Placement
Footnotes are normally placed at the bottom of the page on which the footnote is referenced. However, Word provides some flexibility on the actual placement of the note on the printed page. This tip discusses the options you have.

   Converting Endnotes to Regular Text
If you have a document with lots of endnotes, you may need them converted to regular text so that they can be used properly by another program. Doing the conversion by hand can quickly get tedious, but there are a few things you can do to make the process easier.

   Converting Footnotes to Endnotes
When you spend a lot of time creating footnotes, how can you convert all of them to endnotes without entering them all again? It's easy to do if you follow the steps in this tip.

   Converting Individual Endnotes and Footnotes
Word makes it easy to convert all your footnotes to endnotes and vice versa. You may want to only convert a couple of them, and the key to doing this is discussed in this tip.

   Converting to Automatic Endnotes
When you add endnotes to a document, they are automatically maintained and renumbered by Word, as necessary. If you get a document that doesn't use Word's endnoting system, you may wonder how you can convert those manual endnotes to automatic ones. Here are some ideas you can try.

   Copying and Moving Footnotes
Want to get your footnotes from one place to another in a document, or even from one document to another document? It's easy to do if you apply the editing techniques you are already familiar with.

   Copying and Moving Footnotes and Endnotes
If you need to move footnotes or endnotes from one location to another in a document, you can use editing techniques you already know. You can also use the same techniques to copy the notes.

   Creating a Bibliography from Footnotes
Most scholarly papers need to have both footnotes and a bibliography. The two are closely related, as they provide different views of the resources consulted in compiling the paper. Word doesn't allow you to automatically create a bibliography from your footnotes, but there are a few things you can try to make the creation process easier.

   Creating Unnumbered Endnotes
Endnotes are indispensable in some types of writing. You may want to create endnotes, however, that don't follow the normal endnoting pattern used by Word. Here's how to create endnotes that are outside the pattern and that don't use numbering at all.

   Default Numbering Format for Endnotes
The default format for endnote numbers is lowercase Roman numerals. If you want the numbers to use a different format, such as uppercase Roman numerals or Arabic numerals, then you need to make a change in the template you use to create new documents.

   Deleting All Footnotes
Tired of all those footnotes hanging on the bottom of each page in your document? You can get rid of them in one step, as described in this tip.

   Deleting Footnotes and Endnotes
Deleting either footnotes or endnotes is a simple process. Just select the reference mark and delete it. Assuming you are using automatically numbered notes, the remaining notes are renumbered for you, as if the deleted note had never existed.

   Different Layouts for Footnotes
If you want to have footnotes appear in a different number of columns than what your text appears in, you may be out of luck. Word won't support this type of formatting, unfortunately.

   Disappearing Footnotes
Footnotes can be an integral part of many documents, particularly those written for a scholarly audience. If those footnotes refuse to appear on printouts, it can be a real problem for the integrity of the document. This tip examines why footnotes might not display or print as expected.

   Endnotes by Chapter
Word allows you to easily add endnotes to your document. It even allows you to specify where those endnotes should appear in the document, as discussed in this tip.

   Endnotes in a Separate Document
When you add endnotes to a document they are normally positioned (as one would expect) at the end of the document. You may want, however, to move the endnotes to a separate document. Word doesn't allow you to easily do this, but there are a couple of ways you can approach the problem and come up with a solution that might work for your needs.

   Footnotes Don't Automatically Renumber
Editing a document can, at times, be hard work. It isn't made easier if you feel that Word is "fighting" you on some tasks, like deleting footnotes. If you make a footnote deletion and the remaining footnotes don't renumber, there are a few things you can (and should) check out.

   Footnotes in Two Columns
When laying out how your printed pages will look, you might want to place your footnotes into more than one column. This is automatic if you are using a multi-column layout, but is more of a headache if not. Here's why.

   Footnotes within Footnotes
Need to add footnotes to your footnotes? It's actually allowed by some style guides, but Word doesn't make it so easy.

   Formatting Endnote Reference Marks
The reference marks used for endnotes are, by default, formatted "good enough" for most people. If you are one of those for whom good enough isn't good enough, you can exercise complete control on how the reference marks appear.

   Formatting Footnote and Endnote References
Depending on whom you are writing for, you may want your footnote and endnote references to appear a specific way. Word allows you to easily change basic reference formatting, but more extensive changes may require macros or manual manipulation.

   Formatting Footnote Reference Marks
The reference marks that appear for footnotes in a document are normally just superscripted digits. If you want to change the formatting used for these references, you can do so by simply changing one of the default character styles in Word.

   Formatting Footnotes and Endnotes
Footnotes and endnotes can be formatted in the same way that you format regular text in your document. There is an easier way to do the formatting, however—use styles.

   Formatting the Space after an Endnote Number
With lots of endnotes in a document, you may be puzzled by the space left between the endnote numbers and the text that follow them. Here's an examination of such a problem scenario and what you can do to get better results in the spacing after the endnote number.

   Heavy-Duty Footnotes
Word allows you to add footnotes to a document, but they are rather straightforward and simple in their application. If you have a need for more complex footnotes, you may need to consider a workaround, as described in this tip.

   IEEE Citation Format
Different style guides describe different ways of formatting information that appears in a document. One such style guide is that used by the IEEE organization. If you need your work to reflect this style guide, you'll appreciate the ideas in this tip.

   Including Footnotes and Endnotes in Word Counts
When you have Word calculate how many words there are in a document, it normally doesn't pay attention to text in footnotes and endnotes. If you want these words counted in the total, here's how to get the proper count.

   Inserting and Deleting Footnotes
Footnotes are essential in some types of writing. When you need to add footnotes to your documents, you'll appreciate the helpful information in this tip.

   Inserting Endnotes
Endnotes appear at either the end of a section or the end of an entire document. It is just as easy to insert an endnote into a document as it is to insert footnotes.

   Inserting Footnotes
Footnotes appear at the bottom (or foot) of each page. It is an easy task to insert a footnote at any point you desire, as described in this tip.

   Inserting Footnotes Using Custom Footnote Marks
Automatic footnotes are easy to insert in Word documents. The default settings are usually fine for most projects. However, you might want to create your own special type of footnote mark. This tip explains how to do this.

   Jumping to a Footnote
Jumping to a specific footnote can be very handy if your document has a lot of footnotes in it. Word provides the capability to move to the footnote location; just use the technique described in this tip.

   Jumping to a Relative Endnote
Endnotes are easy enough to add and accumulate in a document. For this reason, Word makes it easy to jump from one endnote to another using the techniques described in this tip.

   Jumping to a Relative Footnote
Footnotes can be a great addition to any document that needs detailed referencing of citations. You can navigate from one footnote to another by using the Find and Replace dialog box.

   Jumping to an Endnote
Endnotes are often used in documents to document citations and sources. You can jump from endnote to endnote using the technique described in this tip.

   Mixing Note Numbering
When inserting footnotes and endnotes in a document, most of us don't give much thought to the format used in the numbering of those notes. You can, however, modify the format used. If you want to mix different types of numbers in your notes, it is possible, but not without some changes to how you put your document together.

   Moving Footnote References Using Find and Replace
When you are editing a document, you may need to modify where the author placed footnotes relative to surrounding punctuation. You can use Word's Find and Replace capabilities to effect the changes.

   Moving Footnote Text into the Document
Need to move the contents of a footnote up into the main body of your document? You can use normal editing techniques to do the move, or you can apply a simple macro that does it all for you.

   Positioning the Footnote Separator
The Footnote Separator, as its name implies, separates the footnotes on each page from the text on that page. If the separator isn't horizontally positioned to your liking, you'll appreciate the guidance in this tip.

   Printing without Footnotes
Want to print your document without all those footnotes included? It's not quite as easy as you might think, as this tip discloses.

   Putting Your Index after Your Endnotes
Endnotes are supposed to be at the end of your document, right? Not necessarily. You may want something else at the end, such as an index. Here's how to make sure that your endnotes end up where you want them.

   Reference to a Range of Endnotes
When multiple endnote references are used at a given point in your document, you may wonder if there is a way to compress those multiple references to instead display a range. There is no inherent way, but you can get around that lack of capability by using the techniques in this tip.

   Returning to Your Document after Adding an Endnote
Endnotes are a required element in some types of writing. When you add an endnote, Word moves you to the end of your document (or the end of a section) where the endnote can be entered. Getting back to where you were before inserting the endnote can be confusing.

   Searching for Footnote and Endnote Marks
Do you want to quickly search for any footnote or endnote marks in your document? Word makes it easy using the standard Find and Replace dialog box.

   Selectively Changing Endnotes to Footnotes
Want to turn some (but not all) of your endnotes into footnotes. Rather than do it manually, you can apply the shortcut described in this tip.

   Sequentially Numbering Footnotes
If you have a document with lots of footnotes, you might notice that some of those footnotes are not in numerical order, like they should be. It could be due to the way the footnotes are formatted. Here's how to fix it.

   Shortcut to Return to Document Text
When you are done typing a footnote or endnote in your document, you may want a way to return to the main document text without the necessity of removing your hands from the keyboard. Word doesn't have a shortcut to do this, but another of Word's shortcuts may help you out.

   Standardizing Note Reference Placement
Want to modify where an endnote or footnote reference appears in relation to the punctuation in a sentence? Here's a way you can make changes using Word's Find and Replace tool.

   Understanding Footnotes and Endnotes
Footnotes and endnotes are often used in scholarly and formal writing as a way to provide additional information about a topic, without breaking up the flow of your text. Word allows you control over which type of note you use, and where that note is placed.

   Using Cross-References in Footnotes
Need to make a cross-reference from one footnote to another footnote? You can do it if you throw bookmarks into the mix, as described in this tip.

   Using Multiple References to the Same Footnote
Do you want to have multiple footnote references to the same actual footnote in a document? The easiest way to do this is to use cross-references, as described in this tip.

   Viewing Footnotes
Adding footnotes to a document is essential for some types of writing. How you view those footnotes depends on the display mode you are using for your document.

   Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes
Footnotes and endnotes are normally visible with the rest of your document, but such visibility is dependent on which viewing mode you are using. This tip explains how to display notes in a variety of viewing modes.

   Where Do You Want Your Endnotes?
Endnotes can be placed in a couple of different places in your document, not just at the very end. Here's how you can instruct Word to place them only at the end of the document section you specify.