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: Converting to Automatic Endnotes.
William works with files that he receives from other people, and sometimes those documents include endnotes. The problem is that the endnotes are manually added—they are not inserted using Word's automatic note system. The endnote markers are simply superscripted text and the endnotes themselves are typed at the end of the document. This makes it impossible to add or delete endnotes and have them automatically renumbered, as they would be if Word's note system was used.
Word does not provide a way to convert from manual notes to its automatic system. Instead, you need to choose each endnote from the end of the document, copy it to the Clipboard, locate the endnote marker in the text, delete it, insert one of Word's endnotes (Insert | Footnote or Insert | Reference | Footnote, depending on your version of Word), and then paste the endnote text into the actual endnote. If you have lots and lots of endnotes in a document, this can get very tiring very fast.
One possible solution is to use a third-party program that does the conversion for you. One such program is called NoteStripper, available from the good folks at Editorium. You can find the product here:
http://www.editorium.com/15078.htm
Notice that you can try out the product for 45 days, after which time you'll need to pay a nominal fee for it. The product will do lots more than just converting from manual to automatic notes. Check it out and see if it will work for you.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9141) 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: Converting to Automatic Endnotes.
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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: 
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