Adding Endnotes in Text Boxes

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated October 10, 2020)

Gayle edits scientific reports and proposals at her company. Due to page-count issues, she often inserts figure captions into text boxes to place them next to the figure (to save space). She is not able to insert endnote references into the text boxes, but would like to.

Word does not allow the insertion of either footnotes or endnotes into text boxes. You can, however, insert them into frames. A frame is a document object that has been around since the very earliest days of Word, but they received less and less attention since the introduction of text boxes. In many ways they are very similar to text boxes, but there are some differences (such as how they handle endnotes).

To convert a text box to a frame, simply

Right-click the text box and choose Format Text Box from the resulting Context menu. Word displays the Format Text Box dialog box.
Make sure that the Text Box tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Text Box tab of the Format Text Box dialog box.

Click on the Convert to Frame button. Word asks if you are sure you want to convert.
Click on OK.

Now you can insert your desired endnotes into the frame with no problem.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3416) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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

Median of Selected Numbers

Need to find a median value in a series of values? It's easy with the MEDIAN function. What isn't as easy is to derive ...

Discover More

Margins for All Documents Changing

Have you had the margins in a group of documents change without you knowingly doing anything? This tip explores some ...

Discover More

An Automatic File Name

Do you have a set "standard" for how you name new documents? If so, you may be interested in implementing the technique ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Viewing Footnotes

Adding footnotes to a document is essential for some types of writing. How you view those footnotes depends on the ...

Discover More

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 ...

Discover More

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 ...

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 1 + 8?

2020-11-17 20:53:31

Paul

There is another work around (really a trick). Place the footnote marker at the end of the text immediately before the text box and change its font color to white (or the background colour) making it invisible. Then add the footnote number at the required reference point in the text box and format it to superscript. The reader will then see it as a footnote and the footnote numbering in the document will be preserved.

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.