Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes.

Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 9, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word implements a full-featured footnote and endnote system that allows you total control over where and how footnotes and endnotes are printed. If you are viewing your document in Print Layout view, the footnotes or endnotes appear in your document the same as any other text—at the place where they are configured to appear on the printout.

If you are viewing your document in Normal view, footnotes and endnotes are not normally visible. Word opens the Footnotes or Endnotes window at the bottom of the document window whenever you insert a footnote or endnote. Most users, when they are through entering the note text, close the window so they will be able to see more of their document at once. If you later want to view the footnotes or endnotes window, you can use the Footnotes option from the View menu to display the Footnotes or Endnotes window. You can then make changes to footnotes or endnotes in the window, if you so desire.

If you have both footnotes and endnotes defined in the same document, Word will ask you to indicate which you want to view prior to displaying the Footnotes or Endnotes window. All you need to do is select which one you want to view, and then click your mouse on OK.

Once the Footnotes or Endnotes window is displayed, you can select which type of notes are displayed in the window. You do this by using the drop-down Footnotes control at the top of the window to select what you want displayed. If you choose All Footnotes, then the footnotes are displayed; choosing All Endnotes displays all the endnotes for your document.

To close the footnotes window, you can either click your mouse on the Close button at the top of the Footnotes window, or you can again choose Footnotes from the View menu.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (499) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Printing Comments

Comments can be a boon when you want to annotate your worksheets. If you want, you can instruct Excel to print the ...

Discover More

Cannot Set Heading Rows in a Table

Word allows you to specify which rows in a table should be considered headings. What if setting the headings doesn't work ...

Discover More

Printing a Bookmark List with Contents

Bookmarks can be a great tool in Word, allowing you to easily remember the location of desired blocks of text. If you ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

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. ...

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

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.

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 + 6?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.