Footnotes may not be a critical aspect of writing, but they can be extremely useful for reducing clutter without having to excise important asides or explanations—a practice that can be handy in academic writing and elsewhere as well.

Footnotes can also make your work appear more professional, which lends to your credibility as a writer and/or researcher. Unfortunately, a lot of writers don't know how to make footnotes in documents, and that's a shame because it's actually rather simple.

We'll be using Microsoft Word 365 for this post since it's simple to add and format footnotes in Word, but a lot of the concepts are compatible with previous versions and other word processors. Microsoft Word 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that provides people with automatic updates as available. However, a handy thing to know as you learn how to insert Chicago-style footnotes in Word is that the steps here apply to all versions of Word from 2007-2021, too.

When to Use Footnotes

To begin, let's clear up some common confusions regarding what footnotes actually are.

• Footnotes are notes at the bottom of the current page that provide extra commentary or insight on a particular word or phrase in the main text body.
• Endnotes are notes at the end of an entire chapter, document, or book that serve the same purpose as footnotes without affecting page layouts.
• Citations can be either footnotes or endnotes, but they point to references and resources rather than additional commentary or insight.

Not sure if it's worth your time and effort to learn how to properly make and use footnotes? Here are a few scenarios where you might need to know how to do Chicago style citation in Word:

• Parenthetical explanations: When you're writing a research paper or essay, you may want to expound on a point that isn't critical and without distracting readers who already know. Footnotes are cleaner than parentheticals.
• Word count limits: When submitting to an academic or legal journal, for example, you may need to adhere to a maximum word count—and because these limits usually don't count footnotes, this is one way to get more of your thoughts in.
• Quotes and attributions: If you ever include a direct quote in your paper, you'll need to cite it. There are many ways to do this, but the easiest is to simply mark the quote with a footnote that attributes the quote to whatever resource it came from.
• Literary device: Fictional writers have used footnotes in inventive ways, such as to flesh out the details of fantasy worlds, to break the fourth wall, or even to inject comical remarks and asides.
• Assignment requirements: Your assignment may require using footnotes. For example, college essays ask writers to reflect and think critically, but they may also make students learn how to add Chicago style footnotes in Word if they don’t know how already.

The Chicago Style of Footnotes

Once you've decided to learn and use footnotes, you'll need to decide on which style of footnotes works best for you when citing or attributing: APA, MLA, Chicago, and others.

For this post, we'll focus on the Chicago style, 17th edition. Before going into how to insert Chicago style footnotes in Word, let’s look at some basic characteristics:

• Footnote numbers begin with 1 and increase in consecutive order with every additional footnote.
• Footnote numbers go at the end of clauses or sentences and after all punctuation.
• Footnote numbers appear superscripted.
• In the footnote itself, begin with the footnote number followed by a period or with the footnote number as a superscript with the rest of the footnote in full size.
• The first line of a footnote has a 0.5" indent. The rest of the footnote should be flush along the left with that first-line indent.
• Footnotes should have empty lines separating them.
• If a footnote contains both citation and annotation, the citation comes first, separated from the annotation by a single period.

How to Add Footnotes in Word: Chicago Style Requirements for the Paper

Besides learning how to do footnotes in Word, Chicago style has specific requirements for the whole paper. Here’s a general breakdown of them:

• Use left-justified text.
• Choose Times or Times New Roman 12-point font.
• Set 1” margins for the top, bottom, and sides of the page.
• Do a 0.5” indent at the beginning of paragraphs, when inserting block quotes, and to format your bibliography.
• Put page numbers in the top right corner of the paper, starting with the first page of text and going through to your bibliography page.

Pretty simple, right? The actual citation guidelines are a bit more complex and differ depending on the type of resource you're citing, so consult the Chicago Manual of Style. You can use automatic citation apps to make the footnote creation process easier.

Here's an example of a footnote in action, showing both the body text and the footnote itself, taken and modified from A Research Guide:

How to Do Chicago Style Footnotes in Word

And now for the pièce de résistance: how to actually incorporate these footnotes into your Word documents. The good news is that this is the easiest part!

As it turns out, Word automates most of the footnote process, so you don't have to worry about any of the formattings—most of your energy will go towards staying true to whichever style you're using.

Here are the steps to take as you learn how to insert Chicago style footnotes in Word:

1. Place your cursor in the body text where you want the footnote superscript to appear.
2. Select the References tab in the ribbon toolbar.
3. Select Chicago on the Style dropdown menu in the Citations and Bibliography section.
4. Click Insert Footnote. This will immediately bring you to the bottom of the page with the right footnote number to use.
5. Type your footnote according to style.
6. Repeat the process for every additional footnote. Word will automatically increment the number for you.

To use endnotes instead of footnotes, click Insert Endnote instead of Insert Footnote. It's really that simple.

Here's a neat trick to know: If you hover your mouse over a footnote number in the body text, a tooltip will appear with the full footnote—so you don't have to keep scrolling up and down to check footnotes as you read or write.

Here's another trick: Press F5 to bring up the Go To tab of the Find and Replace window. Select Footnote and type in the number of the footnote you want to edit, and Word will immediately take you to the page it's on.

Other Microsoft Office Tricks to Learn

This is just one of many features in Word that can make your writing life easier. Consider incorporating these Word productivity hacks, these hidden Word features, and these little-known Word tricks into your workflow for a real, tangible boost.

And if you consider yourself an Office newbie, we highly recommend going through some resources for the version of Word you use. The new things you learn could help future projects go more smoothly.