Converting Footnotes/Endnotes in Word

Amended 23/11/2011 for 2007 and 2010 users – see below.

There is nothing too tricky about using a footnote in Word, you find your spot and then you click Insert and then Footnote.  Your choice is Endnote (this means at the end of the document or section) or Footnote,  at the foot of the page where you are making the comment, reference or whatever you need to do. The most common use is when writing an article and you want to refer to the original author of a cited work.

Now all that aside:  I use footnotes a lot, as I write a fair number of articles and am currently writing a book. I had done a couple of hundred pages using Endnotes (my notes at the end of the sections), when I decided to change them to footnotes.  After a couple of dozen pages where I was doing it manually (yep, what was I thinking…) I stumbled on the fact that they can be converted – endnotes to footnotes and vice-versa.

For 2003 Users:

1. Click on Insert Menu, choose Footnotes
2. From the dialog box click on Convert.
3. Click on Convert all Endnotes to Footnotes, or Convert All Footnotes to Endnotes (depending on what you want).
4. Click OK and the deed is done!

For 2007 and 2010 users:

1. Simply click the References Tab
2. Then click the dialog box launcher in the bottom right corner of the References group and exactly the same dialog box opens- see below – proceed as previously described.

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