Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. 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 Individual Endnotes and Footnotes.

Converting Individual Endnotes and Footnotes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 19, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365

Word is flexible on whether a note is considered an endnote or a footnote. You can easily convert between the two, but the way you do the conversion is not necessarily intuitive. To convert from an endnote to a footnote (or vice versa), follow these steps:

If you are working in Draft view, display the References tab of the ribbon and click Show Notes. Otherwise, skip to step 3.
If you have both footnotes and endnotes defined in your document, Word displays the View Footnotes dialog box (Word 2007) or the Show Notes dialog box (Word 2010 or a later version). Click on the type of note from which you want to convert and then click on OK. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Show Notes dialog box.

Right-click on the footnote or endnote you want to convert. Word displays a Context menu.
Select the appropriate choice on the Context menu, which should either be Convert to Endnote or Convert to Footnote (depending on what you right-clicked on).
If you are working in Draft view, click Close when you are finished converting.

As you convert each endnote or footnote, it is moved to the other window and the reference marks for the note are updated to what is currently being used for the series (footnote or endnote) to which you are converting.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11757) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Converting Individual Endnotes and 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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