How to Add Footnotes in Word: Putting a footnote in Office software is a skill we need in our daily lives and jobs. When we want to explain some words or sentences, we can put footnotes on the same page or on a new page in a Mac or Windows word document.
Adding footnotes in Microsoft Office Word or WPS Office Writer for Mac or Windows is a good choice. But a lot of users don’t know how to put footnotes in. This article will show you how to add footnotes to a Word document on a Mac or a Windows computer. Here are the steps you need to take to add endnotes to a Word document.
How to Add Footnotes in Word
Create Footnotes and Endnotes
- Put your cursor where the footnote or endnote should go.
- Click the tab for “References.”
- Click the footnote or endnote button to add one.
- A number is put in the text as a reference, and a new footnote or endnote is made. Your text cursor is moved to the footnote or endnote, so you can type in your reference.
- Type in your endnote or footnote.
Modify Footnote and Endnote Properties
- On the References tab, click the button that opens the Footnotes group dialog box.
- Select either Footnotes or Endnotes, then click the list arrow next to Location to choose where the footnotes and endnotes will show up. You can also click the Convert button to change all footnotes to endnotes or endnotes to footnotes.
- Layout: You can choose if footnotes have the same column layout as the main text or if they work on their own.
- Format: Choose a number format or a custom symbol to mark footnotes or endnotes. You can also choose a starting number and decide if the numbering starts over at the beginning of each page or section.
- Apply changes: You can choose if the options you’re using will affect the whole document or just the sections you’ve chosen.
- Change the settings to suit your needs.
- Click the box.
What Are Footnotes?
Footnotes are notes at the bottom of a page that refer to parts of the text (usually with numbers in superscript). Footnotes are used in many ways by writers, such as for citations, information in brackets, outside sources, permissions, background information, and more.
Now that you know what a footnote is, you may be wondering why you would use one. Long notes that explain things can be hard for readers to get through, especially if they come in the middle of a paper. This information needs to be given, but putting it in the main text can make it hard to read.
Imagine if every time an author wanted to give a citation, they had to write out the whole citation at the end of the sentence, like this: (Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: A Curious History 221). Books would be a lot longer, and it would be a lot less fun to read. This is why footnotes are so helpful: they let authors add the needed information without stopping the flow of ideas.
FAQs
How do I Create a Footnote or Endnote? Using footnotes or endnotes involves placing a superscript number at the end of a sentence with information (paraphrase, quotation or data) that you wish to cite. The superscript numbers should generally be placed at the end of the sentence to which they refer.
Footnote or endnote numbers in the text should follow punctuation, and preferably be placed at the end of a sentence. When citing the source for a quotation, the number should be placed at the end of the quotation and not after the author’s name if that appears first in the text.
A complete footnote has the same information as the citation in the bibliography, with some differences in format, plus the page number of a particular quotation. An abbreviated footnote contains the author’s last name, a brief title, and the page number of the quotation.
