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: Jumping to a Relative Footnote.

Jumping to a Relative Footnote

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 25, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you are using footnotes in your document, you may have a need to jump from one footnote to another. Word makes it easy to jump to a footnote relative to the footnote at which you are currently located. You do this in the following manner:

Press F5. Word displays the Go To tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Go To tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

In the left side of the dialog box, choose Footnote. This informs Word what you want to go to. The Enter Page Number box is relabeled as the Enter Footnote Number box.
In the Enter Footnote Number box, enter a plus or minus sign followed by the number of footnotes you want to jump. Plus is forward; minus is backward. For instance, you could jump forward four footnotes by entering +4. Word changes the Next button to a Go To button.
Click on the Go To button.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1848) 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: Jumping to a Relative Footnote.

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. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Word and Character Count Information

Using fields you can easily insert both the word and character counts for a document into the document itself. As those ...

Discover More

Getting Input from a Text File

VBA includes some commands that you can use to read information from text files (non-Word documents). These commands can ...

Discover More

Monitoring the Number of Formats Defined

The number of formats used in a workbook can become a problem if you run up against the limit Microsoft hard-coded into ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Viewing Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes and endnotes are normally visible with the rest of your document, but such visibility is dependent on which ...

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 3 - 3?

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.