Which one you should use in your writing depends on your personal preference or-if you’re writing for school or work-your organization’s publication standards. Endnotes, on the other hand, are added to the end of a section or document.

The only difference between footnotes and endnotes is where they appear in your document.Īs the name suggests, footnotes are attached to the bottom of the page containing the sentence they correspond to. You can use footnotes and endnotes to add side comments to your work or to cite other publications like books, articles, or websites.

Think of them like verbal asides, only in writing. What Are Footnotes and Endnotes?įootnotes and endnotes are both ways of adding extra bits of information to your writing outside of the main text. But don’t worry-the features and functions are the same. Depending on the version of Word you’re using, the menus we walk through in this guide may look a little different. Note: We’re using Microsoft Word 2016, but Word has supported footnotes and endnotes since at least Word 2007. Luckily, Word has useful tools for adding footnotes and endnotes to your writing. The title (Notes or Endnotes) appears centered at the top of the page. Formatting the endnotes page If you are using endnotes, list them on a separate page directly before the Works Cited list. Maybe you want to make a side comment on one of your arguments, or you need to cite another author’s work without distracting from the main text. Your word processing program should allow you to automatically insert footnotes. In the footnote/endnote view, click Format Footnotes or Format Endnotes to display the Format Options dialog, where you can change the size, font, and indentation of one or all of your footnotes or endnotes.Whether you use Microsoft Word for personal or professional writing, sometimes you may want to add supplemental notes to sections of your work. Word inserts a reference mark in the text and adds the endnote mark at the end of the document.Ĭlick the reference number or mark in the body of the text or click Insert > Show Footnotes (for endnotes, click Insert > Show Endnotes ). Word inserts a reference mark in the text and adds the footnote mark at the bottom of the page. If you’re in Reading View, switch to Editing View by clicking Edit Document > Edit in Word for the web.Ĭlick where you want to add the footnote. Usually, footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, while endnotes come at the end of the document or section. Use footnotes and endnotes to explain, comment on, or provide references to something in a document.

Footnote format