Accessing Footnote Text in a Macro

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 6, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Gary would like to process the information stored in footnotes using a macro. However, he cannot figure out how to do so. He wonders how to step through each footnote and access just the text of the footnote, not the footnote's number.

The key to accessing footnotes in VBA is to use the Footnotes collection, which contains all of the footnotes in the document. This means you can use a For...Each loop to step through each of your footnotes, in this manner:

Sub DoFootnotes()
    Dim fn As Footnote
    Dim sTemp As String

    For Each fn In ActiveDocument.Footnotes
        sTemp = fn.Range.Text
        '
        ' Do something here based on contents of sTemp
        '
    Next fn
End Sub

Note that the value in the .Text property is the text of your footnote, and this macro code assigns that to the sTemp variable. You can then slice and dice sTemp in any way you want to do your processing. You can also, if desired, stuff information back into the .Text property to change the contents of the footnote.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13521) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

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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