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: Converting Footnotes to Endnotes.

Converting Footnotes to Endnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 15, 2020)

Footnotes and endnotes are an important part of many documents. If you have a document that includes many footnotes, you may need to convert all those footnotes to endnotes. This is a common occurrence to meet the needs of different audiences—some prefer footnotes, and some prefer endnotes.

To convert all your footnotes to endnotes, follow these steps:

Display the References tab of the ribbon.
Click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Footnotes group. Word displays the Footnote and Endnote dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Footnote and Endnote dialog box.

Click the Convert button. Word displays the Convert Notes dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Convert Notes dialog box.

Make sure the Convert All Footnotes to Endnotes radio button is selected.
Click OK to close the Convert Notes dialog box. (This is when the actual conversion occurs.)
Click Cancel to close the Footnote and Endnote dialog box.

At this point all your footnotes are dutifully converted to endnotes and your entire document is repaginated to reflect the change in layout.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8615) 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: Converting Footnotes to 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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