How to add footnotes in Word

How to add footnotes in Word: During document preparation, there are many reasons why a user needs to add footnotes in Word. When working with large documents (diplomas, abstracts, term papers, scientific publications, and the like), there is often a need for explanatory footnotes to the text (terms, literature, and so on).

In academia, footnotes are often used to cite sources. In other cases, a footnote in Word performs the function of adding information without diverting attention from the main text. You have probably come across footnotes when reading books of a scientific, technical or even artistic nature.

Index:

1. How to add footnotes in Word
2. How to add an endnote
3. View footnotes in the body of a document
4. How to change footnotes in Word
5. How to set up footnotes in Word
6. Setting the footnote separator
7. Article Conclusions

In many situations, a footnote is a necessary element of document design that adds additional information. In this regard, the user has a question about how to add a footnote in Word.

The Microsoft Word editor has built-in support for inserting footnotes into an edited document. Therefore, if necessary, you can create a footnote in Word in any open file.

There are two types of footnotes:

• ordinary – page footnotes in the Word, placed at the bottom of the page;
• endnotes in Word – placed at the end of a section or an entire document.

In one document, it is permissible to use both types of footnotes: page and end. In the first case, footnotes are placed in a special area at the bottom of the page on which they were created. In the second option, the footnotes are placed as a separate list at the end of the document.

A footnote consists of a number or symbol that marks the desired word directly in the text, and textual information explaining the selected word, which is placed either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the document in the general list of footnotes.

In this guide, we will show you how to make a footnote in Word in several ways that you can use in practice. From the instructions, you will learn how to make a footnote at the bottom of the page in Word, or how to add an endnote to a document. These instructions will work in any modern version of Word.

How to add footnotes in Word

First, we will look at how to make page footnotes in Word, placed at the bottom of the document page.

To add footnotes to a document, do the following:

1. Open a Word document and place the blinking mouse cursor where you want to insert the footnote.
2. Click the Links tab on the toolbar ribbon, and in the Footnotes group, select Insert Footnote.
3. As a result, you will have a footnote in the Word text. The program will add the superscript number of the footnote (default is a number) to the main text of the document and to the footnote section at the bottom of the page where the footnotes will be placed.

The footnote area is separated from the page text by a horizontal line. The numbering of footnotes in Word is carried out sequentially throughout the document.

In this image, you can see that after completing the necessary steps, a footnote appeared at the bottom of the document page in Word.

1. Type text that explains the footnote, or paste the copied information there.
2. To return to working with body text, click anywhere on the document page.

Repeat the steps above to add multiple footnotes to your document. Footnotes in Word will always appear at the bottom of every page they are used on.

If you add a new footnote in the middle of a document before one or more existing footnotes, MS Word will renumber the footnotes accordingly.

How to add an endnote

An endnote in Word, as its name implies, is placed at the very end of a document or section. In this case, the list of footnotes in Word is in one place.

1 way:

1. In the window of an open Word document, go to the “Links” tab.
2. Place the text entry cursor at the point in the text where you want the endnote to appear.
3. In the Links group, click the Insert Endnote button.
4. A footnote sign will appear next to the selected word (a number is the default), and the mouse cursor will automatically move to the footnote area located at the very end of the document in a special list of footnotes.
5. Enter text for this footnote or copy information from another source into it.

To quickly return to working with body text at the point where you entered the last footnote, click on the footnote number.

2 way:

1. Open a Word document.
2. Position the mouse pointer where you want the endnote to be.
3. Press the key combination “Alt” + “Ctrl” + “D”, after which the footnote will be inserted into Word.

View footnotes in the body of a document

After you’ve added a footnote in Word, you can hover your mouse over the uppercase footnote reference number in the main text of your document to quickly view that footnote’s pop-up window. This makes it easier to read the footnote without having to scroll down the page to the footnote area.

If you need to see footnotes on a page in Word, you can use two options.

1 way:

Scroll through the pages of the document and view the designation of footnotes in the text and the corresponding lists at the bottom of the page. This method is laborious and inefficient.

2 way:

1. In the window of an open Word document, go to the “Links” tab.
2. In the Footnote group, click on the arrow next to the Next Footnote button.
3. From the drop-down menu, select one of the options from the list:

• Next footnote – to go to the next footnote in the document.
• Previous footnote – to go to the previous footnote in the document.
• Next Endnote – to jump to the next endnote in the document.
• Previous Endnote – to go to the previous endnote in the document.

How to change footnotes in Word

If necessary, you can quickly make adjustments to the footnote text. Footnote text is formatted and edited in the same way as regular document text.

1 way:

1. In the Word window, double-click on the icon of the desired footnote in the body of the document.
2. The mouse cursor will automatically move to the field of the selected footnote.
3. Make adjustments to the footnote text.

2 way:

1. In the open document window, click on the footnote text itself at the bottom of the page.
2. Change the footnote text.

How to set up footnotes in Word

You can customize the format and other options for footnotes used in a document. To do this, you will need to enter the advanced formatting options for footnotes.

Do the following:

1. Go to the “Links” tab, and in the “Footnotes” group, click on the arrow.
2. In the “Footnotes” window, you can set the display options for elements.

Here you can make the following settings:

In the Position group, choose to display regular footnotes as Bottom of Page or Bottom of Text. If you want the footnote section to be anchored to the bottom of the page, select the Bottom of Page option. If you want the footnote section to appear directly below the body of the document, select Below Text.

Endnotes can be configured to appear “At the end of the document” or “At the end of the section”.

Here you can also convert regular footnotes to endnotes and vice versa. Click on the “Replace…” button. In the Convert Footnotes window, you can convert or swap footnotes between footnotes and footnotes.

In the Footnote Arrangement group, you can select the number of columns for footnotes. In the “Columns:” field, select the appropriate option:

• As per section layout.
• One column.
• Two columns.
• Three columns.
• Four columns.

In the Format group, you can change the number format to a different numbering type, including a custom label or symbol.

Footnotes do not have to be numbered. To use a custom icon for footnotes, click on the “Symbol…” button. Select the appropriate symbol, and then click on the “OK” button.

You can also choose between continuous numbering and renumbering within each section or page. In the “Start with” item, set the starting digit, the default value is “1”.

If you need to have a separate numbering of footnotes on each page or in each section, in the “Numbering:” option, select the appropriate option from the drop-down list:

• Continue – The document will use solid continuous footnote numbering.
• In each section – a separate numbering of footnotes is used for each section.
• On Each Page—Applies a separate footnote numbering for each page in the document.

In the Apply Changes group, you can tell Word to apply the settings you just configured to the entire document, or to the section you’re in (if you’ve created sections).

After completing all the settings, click the “Apply” button.

Setting the footnote separator

After you learned how to make footnotes in Word, you may have a question about the footnote area separator. If you’re using the desktop version of Word, you can choose to display a line that separates the footnote section from the rest of the text on each page that contains footnotes.

Do the following:

1. Enter the “View” tab, in the “Modes” group, click on the “Draft” button.

1. Double-click on a footnote or endnote.
2. An area will appear at the bottom of the document window in which, from the Footnotes drop-down list, select Footnote Delimiter.

Now you can edit or delete the footnote separator line. First, select the line, and then perform the necessary actions: delete or change the separator. You can change the line thickness (just adjust the font size) or enter other characters to be used instead of the line, change the color or position.

Return to the “View” tab, in the “Modes” group, click on the “Page Layout” button to see how your document will look after applying the changes.

Article Conclusions

During editing, you may need to add explanatory information (footnote) to the text of the Word document. Therefore, the user needs to get an answer to the question of how to make a footnote in Word. The text editor has built-in support for inserting footnotes. The materials in this article tell you how to make a footnote on a page in Word, or how to place a footnote at the very end of a section or behind the entire text of a document.