How to remove footnotes in Word

While editing a Word document, there are situations when the user needs to know how to remove a footnote in Word, because this design element is no longer required. Circumstances have changed and there is no longer any need to make notes in the document.

A footnote is a link in the form of a number or other superscript character, located in a specific place in the document, to the source – the text content (note, comment, source of information) of a regular footnote at the bottom of the page or endnote at the end of the document. This format is often used in scientific, term papers or tests, because it allows you to supplement information without diverting attention from the main text.

In some cases, such links in the text of the document are no longer needed, so the user should get an answer to the question of how to remove a footnote in Word. You can solve this issue using Microsoft Word text editor.

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to remove footnotes in Word at the bottom of a page or at the end of a document, or how to remove all footnotes at once. Depending on the situation, you may need to remove only some of the footnotes from the document, or all at once, and also remove the line that separates the footnotes from the main text. The proposed methods work in all modern versions of MS Word.

Pay attention to one important point: you need to delete the number (number) or other footnote character in the main text, and not the footnote content at the bottom of the page or at the end of the Word document. Footnotes and endnotes are deleted in the same way.

After removing some footnotes from the Word document test, the remaining footnotes will be automatically renumbered.

How to remove a footnote in Word at the bottom of the page – 1 way

First, we will look at how to manually remove the footnote at the bottom of the page in Word in order to remove unnecessary, unnecessary elements from our document.

Do the following:

1. Position the mouse cursor immediately after the superscript footnote icon (number, number, or other symbol) in the body text of the document.
2. Press the Backspace key (arrow key, ←, return, step back) to highlight the footnote.
3. Click the Backspace key a second time to completely remove the footnote from the document.

As a result of this operation, the footnote symbol will be removed from the main text of the MS Word document, and the footnote itself will be removed at the bottom of the page or at the end of the document along with the dividing line.

How to remove footnotes in Word at the bottom of the page – 2 way

Consider how to delete a footnote at the bottom in Word in another way. This method is almost the same as the previous one.

Do the following:

1. In the body text of an open document, manually select the footnote icon.
2. Press the “Del” (Delete) key.

The footnote has been removed from the Word document.

How to find a footnote in the text of a Word document

If there are many footnotes in the document, then it is problematic to find the desired footnote symbol. In this case, it’s much easier to find the footnote or endnote, so that you can then automatically jump to the footnote mark in the main text.

Use the following method:

1. Click on the footnote or endnote with the mouse pointer.
2. Click on the right mouse button.
3. In the context menu that opens, select Go to Footnote.
4. The mouse cursor will move to the icon of this footnote in the body of the document.

The footnotes themselves can be found in the following way:

1. Open the “Links” tab.
2. In the Footnotes group, click the arrow in the Next Footnote button.
3. Select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu:

• Next footnote.
• Previous footnote.
• Next endnote.
• Previous endnote.

How to remove all footnotes in Word at once

In some cases, it is necessary to remove all footnotes from a document. Deleting footnotes one by one takes a long time and is inefficient, so it’s better to use another option.

Go through a few steps:

1. Press the “Ctrl” + “H” keys.
2. In the “Find and Replace” window, in the “Replace” tab, in the “Find:” field, enter the characters “^f” for a regular footnote, or “^e” for an endnote, and the “Replace with:” field should remain empty.

If you do not want to enter these characters from the keyboard, then click on the “More” button. In the window with advanced options, click on the “Special” button, and in the context menu that opens, select “Footnote sign” or “Endnote sign”.

3. Click on the “Replace All” button.

How to remove the footnote line in Word – 1 way

If you incorrectly removed the footnote, then a dividing line will remain on the document page, which cannot be removed in the usual way. This happens when you have removed the content of a footnote, but the footnote mark remains in the body of the document.

Do the following:

1. Highlight the footnote symbol in the body text of the Word document.
2. Click on the “Del” (Delete) key.

The footnote symbol and separator line will be removed from the Word document page.

We remove the dividing line of the footnote in Word – 2 way

You can use another method to remove the separator line left in the document.

Do the following:

1. Enter the “View” tab.
2. In the “Modes” group, click on the “Draft” button.
3. Double-click the left mouse button on a footnote or endnote.
4. At the bottom, in the “Footnotes:” field, select “Footnote Delimiter”.
5. Highlight the horizontal bar of the footnote separator.
6. Click on the “Del” key.

Article Conclusions

Many users, while editing a document, need to know how to remove a footnote in Word if this text decoration element is no longer needed. You can remove footnotes and endnotes from the body text of a document one at a time or all at once. If you incorrectly deleted the footnote, then a dividing line remained on the document page, which can also be removed from Word using the tips in this instruction.