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: Copying and Moving Footnotes.

Copying and Moving Footnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


2

Word implements a full-featured footnote system that allows you almost total control over where and how footnotes are printed. If you have previously inserted footnotes into your document and you want to duplicate a footnote, you can use techniques you already know for copying regular text. To copy a footnote, follow these steps:

  1. Highlight the footnote reference mark in your document.
  2. Press Ctrl+C. The footnote reference mark and the associated footnote are copied to the Clipboard.
  3. Position the insertion point at the location where you want to copy the footnote.
  4. Press Ctrl+V. The footnote reference mark is inserted in your document, and the associated footnote is added to the footnotes section. If you are using auto-numbered footnotes, all the footnotes in your document are renumbered.

If you instead want to move a footnote to another location in your document (or even in another document), you can use similar techniques. All you need to do is use Ctrl+X in step 2 instead of the noted Ctrl+C.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1150) 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: Copying and Moving Footnotes.

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

Hiding Errors

If you find the green and red squiggly underlines that Word adds to your document distracting, you might want a quick way ...

Discover More

Using the Insert Key to Insert Text

The Insert key can be used for different purposes, depending on how you configure the program. This tip explains those ...

Discover More

Paragraph Numbers in Headers or Footers

If your documents routinely use numbered paragraphs, you may want to place the number of the page's first paragraph in ...

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 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Controlling Endnote Placement

Endnotes are often used in technical and scholarly documents. You can control exactly where the endnotes appear in your ...

Discover More

Formatting Footnote Reference Marks

The reference marks that appear for footnotes in a document are normally just superscripted digits. If you want to change ...

Discover More

Center-column Footnotes

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

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 six minus 6?

2016-05-06 22:29:01

Garry Munday

I have a document that has been formatted to add footnotes to the bottom of the relevant pages. I wish to change that to having them at the end of each chapter.
I don't seem to be able to find it in your tips. Can you help, please.
Garry


2015-10-13 04:04:06

Merry

Moving text that has footnotes presents a problem if you don't remember to mark the footnotes first (not always a priority when editing).


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.