Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 1, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
Renata is typing a dissertation with over 450 footnotes. She's inserted them in the regular manner for creating footnotes, and wonders if there is a way to easily generate a bibliography in the proper order from the footnote information.
Unfortunately, there is no way to do this within Word. It is possible that a macro could be created that would do the compilation for you, but it would be quite involved and very specific to the way in which you are creating your footnotes. (Different style guides call for different specifications for both footnotes and bibliographies.)
Another option is to look for third-party software that may fit the bill, but a quick search turned up nothing that sounded promising in this area.
This means that you are left with approaching the task manually. To make the job a bit easier, try these general steps:
That's it; you now have your bibliography, manually created. It may not be easy, but it is easier than cutting and pasting the text from each of your footnotes individually. It is also less prone to errors in missing something during the compilation.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11203) 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: Creating a Bibliography from Footnotes.
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2016-09-25 02:17:56
Stephen Bond
Third-party software: I am nearing the completion of a dissertation and have been using EndNote exclusively. It does both footnotes and bibliography automatically and brilliantly. The only downside (?) is that you have to load the EndNote database with the book/journal/book section ... before you can use it. But after that it's a piece of cake. I started using EndNote late as an undergraduate but many of the resources used there were already in place for the dissertation.
2016-09-24 12:05:07
To skip a step just use the original document and go to View>Draft and then View>Footnotes. Then you can copy the lot into your document. You still have the problem of removing the footnote numbers though (not mentioned in the article Allen). All this for Word Mac 2011.
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