Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Deleting Footnotes and Endnotes.

Deleting Footnotes and Endnotes

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated March 25, 2021)

If you previously inserted footnotes or endnotes into your document and you want to later delete one of them, follow these steps:

Highlight the footnote or endnote reference mark in your document. (In the document itself, not in the footnote or endnote area.) (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Select the footnote reference in the document, not in the footnote.

Press either Del or Ctrl+X.

The footnote or endnote is deleted, and if you are using auto-numbered footnotes or endnotes, the remaining notes in your document are renumbered.

You should note that it does no good to delete the footnote or endnote text; you must delete the footnote or endnote reference itself. You can freely edit the text in the footnote or endnote, but you cannot delete it completely unless you delete the footnote or endnote reference, as described above.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (754) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Deleting Footnotes and Endnotes.

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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