How to Insert an Endnote in Microsoft Word

When you are writing a research paper, a thesis, or a formal legal document in Microsoft Word, you must rigorously cite your sources to avoid plagiarism and provide credibility to your claims. While standard footnotes appear at the bottom of the exact page where the reference occurs, endnotes serve a different purpose. Endnotes collect all of your citations and explanations and push them to the very end of your document, keeping the main pages clean and uncluttered. Microsoft Word includes a dedicated tool to manage endnotes automatically.

How to Insert an Endnote

Unlike manually typing numbers and drawing lines, Word’s built-in tool automatically handles the numbering system and ensures the notes always remain at the end of the text, even if you add twenty new pages to the middle of the document.

1. Open your document in Microsoft Word.
2. Place your blinking text cursor at the exact location where you want the citation number to appear (usually immediately following the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence).
3. Click on the References tab in the ribbon menu at the top of the screen.
4. In the “Footnotes” group, click the large button labeled Insert Endnote.

Microsoft Word will instantly insert a small superscript Roman numeral (e.g., i) at your cursor’s location. Your screen will then automatically jump to the very end of your document, placing a corresponding i next to your cursor, ready for you to type the actual citation (e.g., the author’s name, book title, and page number).

Keyboard Shortcut: For maximum typing efficiency, you can insert an endnote instantly by pressing Alt + Ctrl + D on Windows, or Option + Command + E on a Mac.

How to Modify the Numbering Format

By default, Word uses lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv) for endnotes so that they do not conflict with the standard numbers (1, 2, 3) often used for standard footnotes on the same page. If your university’s style guide requires a different format, you can change it.

1. Ensure you are on the References tab.
2. Look closely at the “Footnotes” group. In the absolute bottom-right corner of that group box, click the tiny arrow icon (the dialog box launcher).
3. The “Footnote and Endnote” configuration window will appear.
4. Under the “Format” section, click the Number format drop-down menu.
5. Select your preferred format (e.g., 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C).
6. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the window to instantly update all existing endnotes in your document.

Converting Endnotes to Footnotes

If your professor suddenly informs you that they prefer citations at the bottom of each page rather than at the end of the paper, you do not need to re-type anything. Open the “Footnote and Endnote” configuration window (using the small arrow icon as described above). Click the Convert… button, select Convert all endnotes to footnotes, and click OK. Word will instantly rip all the citations from the back page and format them perfectly onto the bottom of their respective pages.