Adding Endnotes in Text Boxes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 10, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

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

Embedding Your Phone Number in a Document

One way you can designate your responsibility for a document is to add your phone number to it. There is no need to add ...

Discover More

Formatted Merging

When you use the mail-merge capabilities of Word, the information merged takes on the formatting of your source document, ...

Discover More

Read-Only Files

Read-only documents (those that cannot be updated) are part and parcel of working with Word. There are many ways that a ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

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

Viewing Footnotes

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

Discover More

Returning to Your Document after Adding an Endnote

Endnotes are a required element in some types of writing. When you add an endnote, Word moves you to the end of your ...

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 2 + 3?

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.