How to Convert Individual Footnotes to Endnotes in Microsoft Word (and Individual Endnotes to Footnotes)

Here’s the scenario: You’ve just completed a twenty-page report with seventy-five footnotes when you realize that several of those footnotes should be endnotes. Rather than deleting those footnotes and manually creating new endnotes, follow the steps below to convert individual footnotes to endnotes in Microsoft Word. These steps can also be used to convert individual endnotes to footnotes.

The steps for converting all footnotes to endnotes and vice versa also appear at the bottom of this tutorial.

This information only applies to notes created with Word’s footnote and endnote tool. For easy-to-follow instructions on using that tool, visit “How to Insert Footnotes and Endnotes in Microsoft Word.”

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 250 other videos about Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat on my YouTube channel.

These steps are for Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2019, and Word 2016. The steps are similar for Word 2013 and Word 2010.

Convert Individual Footnotes to Endnotes (or Convert Individual Endnotes to Footnotes)

1. Ensure that your document is in Print Layout view.

Shortcut Alert: Step 2 through Step 6 explain how to move to individual notes. If your document is short, you can scroll directly to the note you want to convert and skip to Step 5.

2. Select the References tab in the Ribbon.

3. Select Show Notes in the Footnotes group.

4. Select View footnote area or View Endnote area from the Show Notes dialog box. (You won’t see this dialog box if your document has only footnotes or only endnotes.)

5. Select the OK button.

6. Select Next Footnote repeatedly until you arrive at the note you want to convert. Or, select the Next Footnote down arrow and choose an option from the drop-down menu: Next Footnote, Previous Footnote, Next Endnote, or Previous Endnote.