Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, 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: Printing without Footnotes.

Printing without Footnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 9, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


2

Word allows you to add any number of footnotes to your document. At some point you may want to print your document, but without the footnotes. Word does not have a setting that allows you to print without footnotes, however. Word normally includes the footnotes whenever you print.

You may think that one way to get a printed copy without footnotes is to modify the styles used for footnotes (Footnote Text and Footnote Reference) so their font has the Hidden attribute set. You should then be able to print a copy of the document, without Hidden text, so that footnotes aren't printed. Testing, however, showed that this perfectly logical idea doesn't work. What happens is that the footnotes, which use the Footnote Text style, are indeed hidden. The footnote references in the main text, which use the Footnote Reference style, are also hidden. However, the footnote references within the footnote area are not hidden, even though they are also formatted with the same Footnote Reference style. This behavior is inconsistent and illogical, but it is nonetheless Word's behavior.

The only sure-fire way to print a document without footnotes is to get rid of the footnotes. Since you could have quite a few footnotes in your document, deleting them one by one can get tedious. Such tedium, though, is prime territory for macros. The following macro will delete all the footnotes in a document, print that document to the currently selected printer, and then close the document without saving the changes.

Sub BanishFootnotes()
    Dim oFN As Footnote

    For Each oFN In ActiveDocument.Footnotes
        oFN.Delete
    Next oFN
    ActiveDocument.PrintOut
    ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=False
End Sub

It should be noted that if you delete footnotes (or even hide them, as earlier discussed), Word "closes up" the layout of your document. This means that pagination is affected. Thus, a copy of the document printed with footnotes will have different pagination than a copy without footnotes. If you simply want to hide the footnotes and not affect pagination, there is no direct or easy way to do this. Instead, you need to manually "hide" footnotes on each page, perhaps by covering the footnote area with a drawing object (a text box or a rectangle) that has no border. This, of course, won't get rid of the footnotes references in the text; those you will need to tinker with so they are covered by very small drawing objects.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10911) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Printing without Footnotes.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Understanding Default Tab Stops

Ever wonder how Word determines the default setting for each tab stop in your document? This article should satisfy any ...

Discover More

Setting Column Width in a Macro

Does your macro need to change the width of some columns in a worksheet? Here's how to do it.

Discover More

Adding Comments to Protected Worksheets

When you protect a worksheet, Excel stops users from editing or otherwise making changes to the data in the worksheet. If ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing the Footnote Continuation Separator

When you add a really long footnote to a document, it could be that the entire footnote might not fit on the page where ...

Discover More

Adding Footnotes to Endnotes

Word does footnotes. Word does endnotes. Word doesn't do footnotes within endnotes. Here's a discussion as to why and ...

Discover More

Moving Footnote Text into the Document

Need to move the contents of a footnote up into the main body of your document? You can use normal editing techniques to ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is 2 + 5?

2022-07-21 10:02:20

Andrew

Imagine working for an hour and unwittingly calling this macro to print a copy for review. Poof, gone!

Any macro that closes a document without saving it risks this catastrophe. To alleviate this, at the beginning of the macro there should be a check that the document has already been saved (ActiveDocument.Path <> "") *and* that there are no unsaved changes (ActiveDocument.Saved).

Or, instead of abandoning the document, you can undo the changes. Modern versions of Word allow this via calls to Application.UndoRecord.StartCustomRecord and Application.UndoRecord.EndCustomRecord.

Andy.


2022-07-21 01:49:48

Brian

One thing I would recommend, if you have a table of contents or other object that references page number (like an index), that you update those before printing. I see you have a separate article for update the TOC, and I would recommended adding that just before printing in this macro, if needed, and do the same for any similar table
https://wordribbon.tips.net/T008621_Updating_an_Entire_TOC_from_a_Macro


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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.