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: Searching for Footnote and Endnote Marks.

Searching for Footnote and Endnote Marks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 25, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you don't know where a footnote or endnote reference is located in your document, you can use Word's powerful searching capabilities to find automatic footnote references. To search for a footnote, follow these steps:

Press Ctrl+F to display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

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

In the Find What box, enter the text for which you want to search. To search for a footnote mark, enter ^f. To search for an endnote mark, instead enter ^e.
Set other searching parameters, as desired.
Click on Find Next.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1919) 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: Searching for Footnote and Endnote Marks.

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...

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