Inserting Footnotes in Microsoft Word 2007

There is a “References” tab up at the top of the Microsoft Word “ribbon”. If you
select this tab, you will see several options for adding references to your document,
including a button labeled “Insert Footnote”.

To begin, place your cursor at the point where you want to insert a footnote and
click the button. Footnote numbers need to go outside all sentence punctuation
except dashes; for example:

“…and they rode off into the sunset.”1

…while most animals will not,2 the possum…

… this animal is the largest aquatic animal3—several times larger than the
largest land animal…

Word will automatically insert the next consecutive number in superscript.

Word will also insert a line at the bottom of your page, and give you a place to type
your reference.1

The footnote itself is single-spaced, but the footnote section needs to be double-
spaced.2 Word does not automatically do this; the line spacing function can be
found on the “Home” tab, in the “Paragraph” section. Highlight your footnotes, and
select the “Line spacing” drop-down menu. Make sure that the check-mark is next
to the 1.0 spacing, then add in an extra return between your footnotes (this is the
simplest way).3

1
Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, sixth edition (New York: The
Modern Language Association of America, 2003) 297-313.

2
Gibaldi 300.

3
First Last, Title (City: Publisher, date) pages.