MS-Word / General Formatting

Changing the Footnote Format

The formatting of footnotes is governed by the Footnote Text style. You can change the appearance of all footnotes in your document by simply modifying the Footnote Text style.

Similarly, you can format footnote reference numbers by using the Footnote Reference style. It's a character style, so it doesn't affect formatting for the entire paragraph.

The initial setting for footnote text is Normal + 10 point. Therefore, footnotes are formatted in the same font that's in Normal paragraphs except that they're 10-point regardless of the Normal text size. If you want your footnotes to appear in a different font or size from the rest of the document, change the font or size for the Footnote Text style.

The initial setting for footnote references is Default Character Format + Superscript. As a result, footnote reference numbers print using the same font as the rest of the text in the paragraph, except that the superscript attribute applies. If you want to see footnote references in a different font, all you have to do is change the Footnote Reference style.

Both footnote text and footnote references automatically apply when you create footnotes, so you should have no reason to apply these formats directly.

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