Referring twice to the same footnote in Word

Question

How do you refer to the same footnote twice on Microsoft Office Word 2007 or 2010?

Solution

You're able to reference footnotes multiple times in Microsoft Word by using cross-references. However, cross-references have a minor limitation – if you insert another footnote above the original one, the footnote number will update, automatically, immediately, but the cross-reference number will not. There are a few ways to update the cross-references in a document:

• Simply open the Print Preview window (and then close it).
• Select the cross-reference(s) that need to be updated (easy way: type Ctrl+A to select the entire document) and press F9.
• There are other ways, mostly using macros; see The CyberText Newsletter.

(These work for other types of cross-reference (e.g., page numbers or section numbers) too.)

To insert a footnote and then use a cross-reference:

1. With Microsoft Word open, place the cursor where the original footnote needs to be placed
2. Select the 'References' ribbon
3. Select the 'Insert Footnote' button and enter the footnote information
4. Place the cursor where the second footnote needs to be placed
5. Select the 'References' ribbon
6. Select 'Cross-reference'
7. Under 'Reference type' select 'Footnote'
8. Under 'Insert reference to' select 'Footnote number (formatted)'
9. Under 'For which footnote' select the appropriate footnote you need to cross reference
10. Click 'Insert'
11. Click 'Close'

• Source: Word 2010 – Referring to the same footnote twice

Comments

[onnodb]

Great answer! You're not correct about Word not updating cross-references, though: Word does update the cross-ref number. To do this, you need to update all fields in the document. There's various ways to do this, but the easiest is to open "Print Preview". This will update all cross-refs to the correct numbers.

[ovann86]

Thanks for the info onnodb. I've updated the post to include this.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

In what sense is this “simpler”? All you did was cram it into fewer lines than ovann86 used. The three-year-old (and widely up-voted) answer looks longer because ovann86 included instructions on how to create the original footnote (steps 1–3). Going back at least as far as Word 2007, the “(Insert) Cross-reference” button has been on both the “Insert” tab and the “References” tab. Aside from that, your answer is the same as his.

[Fawix]

Other way to update the cross-ref is to select everything and then press F9 (English version of office users ctrl+a as shortcut to select everything)

[Confounded]

This method does not take you to the footnote, it take you to the first reference to the footnote, which is not the same. Also, when one hovers with a mouse over the first reference to the footnote, a pop-up window displays the contents of the footnote. With the above method, one instead gets "Ctrl+Click to follow link" pop-up message instead.

[Code42]

Cross-reference is such a nice feature!