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’ll get them by default, which you might not need. You may receive a documents filled with footnotes which you don’t find useful. If you want to delete them, Word offers multiple ways of doing it.

If there are too many of them for manual removal, there are 3 ways to delete all of them at once. We’ll cover everything you need to know in this article.

Removing Footnotes and Endnotes by Using the Find and Replace Option

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

1. In the document you’re editing, open the Find and Replace dialog box: On a Mac, go to Edit > Find, and select Advanced Find and Replace. If you’re using Word 2013 or 2016, you can do this by pressing Ctrl + H.
2. Once you’ve opened the dialog box, click on the Replace.
3. In the Find what box, enter ^f for footnotes and ^e for endnotes. You can also do this by selecting More > Special > Footnote Mark or Endnote Mark.
4. Leave the Replace with box blank, then go to Replace All.

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

Recording Macros

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

To record a macro that will do 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 delete endnotes the same way, just replace ^f with ^e. Assign the macro to a button or a key, and you’ll be able to delete all footnotes found in a document in no time.

Using VBA Codes

This is a method for which you don’t need any coding knowledge, as it’s very simple. It doesn’t allow multiple use like macros, but it’s a lightning fast way of removing footnotes and endnotes from a document. Here’s what you have to do.

1. Hit Alt + F11 to run the VBA Editor.
2. Go to 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

For removing endnotes, paste this code:

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


4. When ready, select Run.

This method allows you to remove all footnotes and endnotes that you might not be able to remove manually, since not all marks can be removed without code. This includes customized marks for which a macro is needed.

Deleting Footnotes Manually

Lastly, you might 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 itself, select Go to Footnote, then delete the number from there.

The Final 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, recording a macro and assigning it to a key on the keyboard is your best choice.

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