How to Create Footnotes

Transcript

If your manuscript contains footnotes, you will want to make sure they have been incorporated into your manuscript the correct and easy way, which I’ll demonstrate in a moment.  What you should not do is manually type in the footnote reference numbers and then manually make space at the bottoms of your pages to type in your footnotes.  Doing it this way will definitely cause problems after we place your text in the final book margins.  When the margins change, your text will shift, and the footnotes will no longer be at the bottoms of the pages where they are supposed to be. 

Instead, for Microsoft Word users, simply position your cursor at the insertion point where you want the reference number to appear.  Then, go to ‘Insert’, ‘Reference’, and ‘Footnote’.  In the ‘Footnote and Endnote’ dialogue box that will pop up, make sure ‘Footnote’ and ‘Bottom of the Page’ are selected.  You also have the option of selecting ‘Endnote’.  Endnotes will appear all together at the end of your document rather than at the bottom of the page.  We recommend selecting Endnotes if you’re just citing a source or providing bibliographical information.  But if you are elaborating on the content of that specific page, we recommend keeping it as a footnote.  You can also select the format of your numbering and what number to start at.  We recommend making sure ‘Continuous Numbering’ is selected.  This will automatically number your footnotes in chronological order as you insert them throughout your manuscript.  When you’re finished in the dialogue box, click ‘Insert’.  The footnote reference will appear, as well as a place at the bottom of the page where you can type in the footnote information.

Creating your footnotes this way will help make it very easy to add, remove, or renumber footnotes.  In addition, if you ever need to add or remove content from your manuscript, the footnotes will move automatically with the shifting text. 

If created the correct way, the fee for footnotes or endnotes may be waived.  But if your footnotes or endnotes are created incorrectly, see our Fee Schedule or contact a representative to learn more about the Footnote/Endnote Insertion fees.  If you have purchased Rapid Release publishing, your footnotes may need to be converted to endnotes in order to meet the Rapid Release timelines.