Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Changing the Way Footnotes Are Numbered.

Changing the Way Footnotes Are Numbered

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 2, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

In Word, footnotes can be automatically numbered from 1 through the number of footnotes in the document. Thus, if your document contains 14 footnotes, they will be numbered 1 through 14. You can change the way footnotes are numbered, however. Word allows you to specify both a starting footnote number and whether the numbering starts over with each new section in your document.

Word allows you to change how it handles footnote numbering by following these steps:

Make sure the References tab is selected on the ribbon.
Click the small downward-pointing arrow at the lower-right corner of the Footnotes group. Word displays the Footnote and Endnote dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Footnote and Endnote dialog box.

Make sure the Footnotes radio button is selected.
Change the Start At value to reflect where you want Word to start numbering.
Change the Numbering drop-down list to reflect how you want Word to count your footnotes.
Click on Apply and then Cancel; otherwise click Insert to add a footnote mark at the current document location.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (5973) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing the Way Footnotes Are Numbered.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Selecting a Line of Text

Many word processing programs include commands that allow you to select a line of text. Word doesn't, but you can use the ...

Discover More

Recovered Document becomes Default

Word has a feature called AutoRecover that helps you when Word or Windows crashes. If your Normal template gets messed up ...

Discover More

Adding Tags to Text

The Find and Replace capabilities of Word can be used to add HTML tags to your document text. This is easier to do than ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing the Line between Text and Footnotes

When your document includes footnotes, Word adds a line between the main text and those footnotes so that they are ...

Discover More

Automatically Adding Tabs in Footnotes

When you add a footnote to a document, Word's normal formatting adds a space after the footnote number and before the ...

Discover More

Converting Hyperlinks to Footnotes

If you have a document that contains a lot of active hyperlinks, you can use a macro to convert those hyperlinks to ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is two more than 5?

2023-10-01 08:09:38

Adam

Do you know how to do it in Word Online? It seems there is no any little arrowin Footnote group.

2023-02-26 14:21:55

Attila

"Click the small downward-pointing arrow at the lower-right corner of the Footnotes group."
I can't see any "Footnote group" in Word, Office 365 for Mac when the "References" tab is selected.
Hence, i can't find "the small downward-pointing arrow at the lower-right corner of the Footnotes group".

Any suggestion to solve this problem, please?

2023-02-14 17:08:30

Michael Cooper

This info is apparently not applicable to Mac. This should've been specified at the head of the article so as not to waste Mac users' time.

2022-04-10 18:58:58

Ahmed Atia

many thanks for the information
was really helpful

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.