Shortcut to Return to Document Text

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 22, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Paul wondered if, when he finishes typing a footnote or endnote in Word, there a way to get back into the text of the document using the keyboard instead of the mouse. There are actually several ways you can accomplish this task.

As far as I can determine, there is no dedicated keyboard shortcut to return to the main document text once you are in a footnote or endnote. Most people use Shift+F5 (or Ctrl+Alt+Z) for this purpose, however. This shortcut cycles through your last several edit locations. When you are typing in a footnote or endnote, this means that it takes you back to your previous edit location, which is typically where you inserted the footnote or endnote reference. This will not always be the case, as you may have jumped into your footnote or endnote directly from the body text by clicking within the note. In that case, Shift+F5 will take you back to wherever you were previously editing your document text.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3468) 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...

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What is one less than 7?

2022-02-23 06:25:45

Sarit P

Great tip, thank you!
It also works in word 365.

Is it possible to teach us also how to return to the main document after writing a comment? Nothing works for me :(
Thank you

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