How to delete all footnotes in Microsoft Word

Footnotes and endnotes can be very useful if you want to add comments, explanations, and references to a document. They make it easy to separate additional notes from the body of the text.

However, sometimes you will get them by default, which you may not need. You may receive documents full of footnotes that are not useful to you. If you want to delete them, Word offers several ways to do so.

If there are too many to delete manually, there are 3 ways to delete them all at once. We will cover everything you need to know in this article.

Deleting Footnotes and Endnotes Using Find and Replace

This is the most used method and also one of the simplest. With just a couple of clicks, you can get rid of all footnotes. Here’s how to do it.

1. In the document you are editing, open the Find and replace dialog box: On a Mac, go to Edit > Searchand select Advanced Search and Replace.If you are using Word 2013 or 2016, you can do this by pressing Ctrl+H.
2. Once you have opened the dialog box, click the Replace.
3. In it find that , enter ^f for footnotes and ^e for endnotes. You can also do this by selecting More > Special > Footnote mark either Final grade mark.
4. Leave the Replace with blank box, then go to Replace everything.

This is the easiest of the three ways to remove footnotes and endnotes. If you’re a little more tech-savvy and would like to experiment with coding, there are two additional options.

Macro recording

If you have to work with multiple documents that have a lot of footnotes, recording a macro is the best way to delete them all. Once you do this, you can assign a macro to a keyboard key or an option in Word. This will allow you to use it any time you need to remove all footnotes from a document.

To record a macro that does this, use the following codes:

Sub DeleteFootnotes()
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^f"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

You can remove trailing notes the same way, just replace ^f with ^e. Assign the macro to a button or key and you can delete all the footnotes found in a document in no time.

Using VBA codes

This is a method for which you do not need coding knowledge, since it is very simple. It doesn’t allow multiple uses like macros, but it is an incredibly fast way to remove footnotes and endnotes from a document. This is what you have to do.

1. Hit Alt + F11 to run the VBA editor.
2. Gonna Insert > Module.
3. Double-click to open the module, then paste the following code to remove all footnotes:

Sub DeleteAllfootnotes()
Dim objFootnote As Footnote
For Each objFootnote In ActiveDocument.Footnotes
objFootnote.Delete
Next
End Sub

To remove endnotes, paste this code:

Sub DeleteAllEndnotes()
Dim objEndnote As Endnote
For Each objEndnote In ActiveDocument.Endnotes
objEndnote.Delete
Next
End Sub


4. When you’re ready, select Run.

This method allows you to remove all footnotes and endnotes that you may not be able to remove manually, as not all marks can be removed without code. This includes custom flags for which a macro is required.

Delete footnotes manually

Lastly, you may only want to delete some of them. If this is the case, the only way to do it is manually. Each footnote has a corresponding number in the body of the text.

1. To delete a footnote, all you have to do is remove the number from the body and it will disappear automatically.
2. You can also right click on the footnote, select Go to footnotethen delete the number from there.

The last word

Depending on the situation, you can use any of the above methods to get rid of footnotes and endnotes. If you know you’ll have to deal with them repeatedly, your best bet is to record a macro and assign it to a key on the keyboard.

For single use, you can go the VBA editor route or use the first method if coding isn’t your thing. Whichever route you decide to take, you’ll be able to take care of the footnotes in no time.