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This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene has been writing and editing tech content at wikiHow since 2019. She previously worked for AppleCare, served as a writing tutor, volunteered in IT at an animal rescue, and taught as an adjunct professor for EN101 and EN102. Darlene has completed Coursera courses on technology, writing, and language. She holds both a BA (2011) and an MA (2012) from Rowan University in Writing, with a focus on workplace communication. With her extensive experience, academic background, and ongoing learning, Darlene has become the go-to grammar expert for her friends and family, as well as a skilled wordsmith for anyone in need.
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Footnotes in Word make it easy for a reader to find where your data came from, and citation formats like MLA or APA, require the use of them. But what if you want to remove a footnote? This wikiHow article will show you how to remove a single footnote in Word or all of them at once. Since both the Mac and Windows versions of Word are similar, these methods will work in either environment.
Steps
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Open your document in Word. You can either open your document within word from the “File” tab or you can find your file in your file browser, right-click on it, then select “Open With…” and “Word.” -
Go to your footnote reference. This is in the main body of the document. The actual footnote will appear at the bottom of the page, but the reference to it is in the body of the paper.Advertisement -
Delete the footnote reference with ← Backspace or Del. When you delete the footnote reference, you also delete the footnote at the bottom of the page.
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Open your document in Word. You can either open your document within word from the “File” tab or you can find your file in your file browser, right-click on it, then select “Open With…” and “Word.” -
Open the “Advanced Find and Replace” dialog box. You can press Ctrl+H if you're using a Windows computer.- For Mac, go to the Find tab in the Edit menu, then Advanced Find and Replace.[1]
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Click the Replace tab. This is an option in the “Advanced Find and Replace” box. -
Type “^f” in the "Find" box. The ^f means the document will search for all footnotes. -
Leave the "Replace" box blank. Typing nothing ensures that your footnotes are removed. -
Click Replace All.
Expert Q&A
Tips
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If you’re finding that deleting the footnote reference is not deleting the footnote text at the bottom of the page, make sure the “Track Changes” feature is not enabled. You can find the “Track Changes” feature in the “Review” tab.Thanks
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About This Article
1. Open your document in Word.
2. Navigate to the footnote reference.
3. Delete the footnote reference and the full footnote will be deleted.
