Footnotes and Endnotes
By the Syncfusion DevTutorials team · Last updated
Add footnotes and endnotes, learn how they differ, and choose the right one for your document.
Reports, essays, and research papers often need extra information that would interrupt the main text: a source, a definition, or a side comment. Footnotes and endnotes hold that information outside the main text, linked by a small number. In this lesson, you'll insert both, learn how they differ, and choose the right one.
Open the Word sandbox and follow along. The tools are on the References tab.
How notes work
Before you insert anything, it helps to see what a note is made of. A note has two parts:
- A small reference mark, usually a superscript number like ¹, placed in the text.
- The note text, which appears somewhere else and starts with the same number.
Word numbers the notes for you. Add a new note before an existing one, and every number after it updates automatically.
Footnotes
The first type of note lives at the bottom of the page. A footnote appears at the bottom of the same page as its reference mark. Readers can glance down to read it without losing their place.
To insert a footnote:
- Click right after the word or sentence the note is about.
- Go to References > Insert Footnote. (In Microsoft Word, you can also press Ctrl + Alt + F.)
- Word adds the number in the text and moves the cursor to the bottom of the page.
- Type the note text.
- Click back in the main text to keep writing.
Click after the punctuation when your note is about a whole sentence, like this.¹ For a single word, click right after the word. The reference mark goes wherever the cursor is.
Endnotes
The second type of note collects at the end. An endnote works the same way, but all the notes are collected at the end of the document (or the end of a section) instead of the bottom of each page.
To insert an endnote:
- Click where the reference mark should go.
- Go to References > Insert Endnote. (In Microsoft Word: Ctrl + Alt + D.)
- Type the note text at the end of the document.
By default, footnotes use 1, 2, 3 and endnotes use i, ii, iii, so readers can tell them apart.
Difference between footnotes and endnotes
Now that you've seen both kinds of note, here they are side by side:
| Footnotes | Endnotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the note appears | Bottom of the same page | End of the document or section |
| Default numbering | 1, 2, 3 | i, ii, iii |
| Best for | Short notes the reader should see right away | Long lists of sources, or notes that would crowd the page |
| Common in | Essays, legal documents, history papers | Books, long reports, research papers |
The choice is about the reader. If they need the note while reading (a definition, a quick source), use a footnote. If the notes are mostly for reference and would clutter the pages, use endnotes.
Editing and deleting notes
Whichever type you choose, you'll eventually need to change or remove a note:
- To edit a note, click in its text (at the bottom of the page or the end of the document) and type.
- To jump between a reference mark and its note, double-click the number.
- To delete a note, select the reference mark in the main text and press Delete. The note text disappears with it, and the other notes renumber.
Deleting only the note text leaves an empty note behind. Always delete the reference mark in the main text instead.
Common mistakes
Here are the most common traps, and how to fix them:
| Mistake | What happens | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Typing note numbers by hand | They don't renumber when notes are added | Delete them and use Insert Footnote |
| Deleting only the note text | An empty, numbered note stays behind | Delete the reference mark in the text |
| Putting the mark in the wrong place | The note points to the wrong word | Delete the mark, click the right place, and insert again |
| Using footnotes for a long source list | The bottom of every page fills up | Switch to endnotes |
| Can't find where to type the note | You keep typing in the main text | Double-click the reference mark to jump to the note |
Exercise
Now it's time to add some notes yourself.
Click New in the sandbox title bar, and type these paragraphs:
The cheetah is the fastest land animal.Elephants can live for more than sixty years.
Now do each task and press Check.
What to remember
- A note has a reference mark in the text and note text elsewhere.
- Footnotes go at the bottom of the same page; endnotes go at the end of the document.
- Insert them from the References tab.
- Word numbers and renumbers notes automatically.
- Delete a note by deleting its reference mark.
- Footnotes for notes readers need now; endnotes for long reference lists.
In the next lesson, you'll build a table of contents from your headings.