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: Selectively Changing Endnotes to Footnotes.

Selectively Changing Endnotes to Footnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 13, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Don knows how to convert all of his endnotes to footnotes. He doesn't want to change them all, however; he only wants to change some of them. He wonders if there is a way to "step through" endnotes and decide, on a note-by-note basis, if it should be changed to a footnote.

There is no feature in Word that works as described, but there is a different approach you can use to selectively make the changes. Follow these steps:

Make sure you can see the document's endnotes on the screen. (You want to display the actual endnotes, not the endnote reference marks in the main section of the document.)
Right-click on an endnote that you want to change to a footnote. Word displays a Context menu.
Select the Convert to Footnote option. Word immediately changes the endnote to a footnote.

Interestingly enough, this is one instance in which Word is consistent—you can follow the same procedure to also convert individual footnotes to endnotes.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11199) 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: Selectively Changing Endnotes to 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. Learn more about Allen...

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