Footnotes and endnotes explain, comment on, or provide references for text in a document. Footnotes appear at the bottom, or the foot, of each page in a document, while endnotes appear at the end of a section or document. Other than that difference, they work the same way.

Footnotes and endnotes have two linked parts: the note reference mark (usually a number) and the corresponding footnote or endnote. Word automatically numbers footnote and endnote marks for you, so when you add, delete, or move notes, they are automatically renumbered.

Add Footnote In Word Document

Create Footnotes and Endnotes

Word 2007/2010/2013/2016 (Windows) Click the 'References' tab. This is located at the top of the. To footnote in MS Word, select the text you want the footnote to reference and press Ctrl+ Alt+F (shortcut) to open the footnote section, then type the footnote text. For detailed steps on how to add footnotes in Word, follow the instructions below. Select the text you want the footnote to reference. Go to Reference Footnotes Insert Footnote. Add a footnote Click where you want to add the footnote. Click Insert Insert Footnote. Word inserts a reference mark in the text and adds the footnote mark at the bottom of the page.

Add Footnote In Word 2016

1. Place your cursor where you want to insert the footnote or endnote.
2. Click the References tab.
3. Click the Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote button.

   A reference number is placed in the text, and a new footnote or endnote is created. Your text cursor is moved to the footnote or endnote, so you can type out your reference.

4. Type your footnote or endnote.

The footnote or endnote is inserted.

You can double-click a footnote/endnote’s number in the document’s text to jump to the note at the end of the page, section, or document. You can also double-click the footnote/endnote’s number at the end of the page, section, or document to jump directly to it in the text.

To convert a footnote to an endnote, right-click the footnote and select Convert to Endnote. To convert an endnote to a footnote, right-click it and select Convert to Footnote.

Modify Footnote and Endnote Properties

Once you’ve added footnotes and/or endnotes, you can customize the way they appear and behave.

1. Click the Footnotes group dialog box launcher on the References tab.

The Footnote and Endnote dialog box contains options to control how footnotes and endnotes appear.

• Location: Select either Footnotes or Endnotes, and then click the Location list arrow and choose where the footnotes and endnotes appear. You can also click the Convert button to convert all footnotes to endnotes, or vice versa.
• Footnote layout: Select whether footnotes appear with the same column layout as body text or act independently.
• Format: Choose a number format or custom symbol to mark footnotes or endnotes, select a starting number, and control whether numbering restarts on every page or new section.
• Apply changes: Choose whether the options you’re applying affect the whole document or just the selected sections.
2. Adjust the options the way you want.
3. Click Apply.

The selected options are applied to footnotes or endnotes, in the selected sections or across the entire document.

Many scholarly documents and research papers require the extensive use of footnotes. How you use footnotes in Word has been covered in detail in other issues of WordTips. You can place footnote markers at any place within your document, including within tables. The footnotes then appear in the regular place, at the bottom of the page, along with your other footnotes.

Some formatting guidelines, however, require that footnotes for tables be handled specially. Namely, that the footnote appear not with the regular text footnotes, but at the end of the table in which the footnote marker appears. For some documents, you may be able to achieve the desired result by inserting a continuous section break immediately after the table and making sure your footnotes are inserted in the table using the 'Beneath Text' setting for the Place At option. (Click on the Options button in the Footnotes and Endnotes dialog box to see this option.)

This approach only works if you have footnotes in your table and don't have any in the regular document text on that page. If you have a need for footnotes in regular text and in your table, you can simply use regular footnotes for your document text and endnotes for the footnotes in your table. The footnotes should be formatted to appear at the bottom of each page, and the endnotes should be formatted to appear at the end of each section. With the section break right after the table (as noted in the previous paragraph), the endnotes will appear immediately after the table, and any footnotes on the page will appear in the proper place at the bottom of the page.

The real 'sticky wicket' comes into play if you need footnotes in your document, separate footnotes in your table, and endnotes at the end of the document. Word has no built-in way to handle such instances. Instead, you must handle the table footnotes manually.

Perhaps the easiest way to manually construct table footnotes is simply include them as part of the table itself. The following general steps describe the process:

1. Add an extra row at the end of your table. If you use borders on the cells in your table, you can remove the borders for this additional row.
2. Select all the cells in the row and merge them. The last row should now consist of a single cell spanning the whole width of your table.
3. Make a copy of the Footnote Reference style and name the copy Tablenote Reference.
4. Make a copy of the Footnote Text style and name the copy Tablenote Text.
5. Modify the new styles as necessary to specify how you want your table footnotes to appear.
6. Select the entire last row of the table and apply the Tablenote Text style to it.
7. Insert your table footnotes as desired, along with marker characters in the table.
8. Format the marker characters using the Tablenote Reference style.

There are ways you can autonumber the footnote references in your table. Simply use the SEQ field for your marker, as covered in other issues of WordTips.

If you prefer to not use an additional row in your table for your footnotes (for whatever reason), you can instead insert a text box that can be used to contain the table footnotes.