How to Remove Footnotes in Word Documents

Footnotes are useful in a report or thesis, but sometimes you need a clean document: a draft for a publisher, a version for a client who does not want notes, or a file where the references were moved to a different section. If you need to know how to remove Word footnotes, the process is simpler than it looks. In most cases you delete the small reference number in the body text, and the note at the bottom of the page disappears with it.

This guide is for people working with a .docx file who want to delete one footnote or every footnote in the document. It covers both methods, a short checklist before you begin, and a way to confirm that the body text still reads correctly afterward. Editing the wording of a footnote is a different task, so this guide only covers removal.

How do you remove footnotes from a Word document? The short answer

Delete the reference number in the body text to remove one footnote, or use find and replace with the footnote mark code to remove all of them at once. Always check the sentences around each removed mark before you save.

Your situation	What to do	Why
One footnote is wrong or no longer needed	Delete its reference number in the body text	The note text is tied to the reference, so it goes too
Every footnote must go	Find ^f, replace it with nothing, and run replace all	^f matches every footnote reference mark in one pass
The file is a PDF, not a .docx	Use the PDF editor in the OmniDoc desktop client to edit or redact the note text	PDF footnotes are page text, not linked objects
You want to keep the original	Save the edited copy under a new file name first	You can compare the two versions if a problem appears

Before you start

Confirm the file type. A .docx file has real footnote objects. A PDF only shows footnote text as part of the page, so the steps below do not apply. Check this first, because the PDF route is different.
Check for notes at the end of the file. Notes placed at the end of a section or document, rather than the bottom of each page, use a separate mark and need a separate search. If your notes appear at the back, search for their reference marks instead.
Save a copy of the original. Deleting footnotes cannot always be undone once the file is closed. Keeping the original lets you restore the notes if a citation was needed later.
Decide whether you want to delete the reference or the note text. In a standard .docx file, the two are linked, so removing the reference removes the note. Deleting only the note text at the bottom usually leaves an empty reference number behind.
Open the file in a Word-compatible editor. You can use any editor that handles .docx files well. The UniDoc web editor offers Word-compatible editing, so you can open the file there and follow the same steps.

Removing one footnote, step by step

Use this method when you only need to remove a few specific footnotes. Work through the document one note at a time, and check each change before moving on.

Open the .docx file. Use the Word-compatible editor you chose, and scroll to the page with the footnote you want to remove.
Locate the reference number. It is a small superscript number in the body text, usually placed after a period or a word. Do not confuse it with the matching number at the bottom of the page.
Place the cursor right after the number. Click directly after the digit so the insertion point sits beside it.
Delete the reference. Press Backspace or select the number and press Delete. The note text at the bottom of the page should disappear with it.
Check the surrounding punctuation. If the mark was after a period or comma, make sure the punctuation still sits in the right place and no extra space remains.
Let the remaining notes renumber. Footnotes after the deleted one move up by one number. Scroll through the rest of the document to confirm the new sequence makes sense.

Removing all footnotes at once, step by step

Use this method when every footnote in the file needs to go. It is faster than deleting them one by one, and it catches reference marks you might miss while scrolling.

Open find and replace. In most word processors, press Ctrl+H on Windows or Command+Option+F on a Mac. If your editor uses a different shortcut, look for a search option in its editing tools.
Enter the footnote mark code. In the Find field, type ^f. In editors that follow Word's conventions, ^f matches every footnote reference mark in the document.
Leave the Replace field empty. Clearing it tells the editor to remove each match rather than swap it for other text.
Run replace all. The editor removes every footnote reference in the body text. Note the number of replacements it reports, and compare that count with the number of footnotes you expected.
Scroll through the document. Confirm that the note text at the bottom of each page has disappeared. If any text remains, select it and delete it by hand.
Save the file under a new name. Keep the edited version separate from the original so both are available.

If ^f does not work in your editor, delete the reference numbers manually. The steps in the previous section apply to each one.

Check the result

Once the footnotes are gone, check the document before you share or submit it. A few small problems are common after bulk deletion, and most can be fixed in place.

Check	How to see it	If it's wrong
No reference numbers remain	Search the document for small superscript digits, or search for ^f again	Delete any leftover marks one at a time
No note text remains at page bottoms	Scroll through each page and look at the bottom margin	Select the leftover text and delete it
Spacing near deleted marks	Read the sentences where a mark used to be	Remove any extra space before a period or comma
Punctuation is in the right place	Look for a period or comma that now follows a space	Move the punctuation to sit directly after the last word
Original content is intact	Compare the edited copy with the saved original	Reopen the original and repeat the steps, checking each change

Also read the edited text once from start to finish. Deleting a reference can remove a sentence's source, which may matter for a paper or report. Reading the body text is the simplest way to catch these gaps.

PDF files need a different approach

If your footnotes are in a PDF, the delete steps above do not work. In a PDF, footnotes are part of the page content, so there is no separate reference to delete. The OmniDoc desktop client includes a PDF editor that can edit paragraph text in place, and it can also redact content. Use the editor to change the note text, or redact the area where the note sits if you need it removed from the page. Redaction permanently covers the content, so check the result before you save, and keep the original file in case you need the notes later.

❓ FAQ

1. Does deleting a footnote number also delete the note text?

In a .docx file, yes. The reference number and the note text are linked, so removing the reference removes the note. If you delete only the text at the bottom of the page, the reference number usually stays behind.

2. Why are there extra spaces after I remove footnotes?

A reference mark often sits right after a word and before a period. When you remove it, a space may be left in the wrong place. Read each affected sentence and delete any extra space before the punctuation.

3. Can I remove footnotes from a scanned PDF?

Scanned PDFs are page images, so footnotes are not linked objects. Run the file through OCR in the PDF editor first so the text becomes editable, then edit or redact the note text. Check the output for errors, because OCR can misread characters.

4. What if the footnote mark code does not work in my editor?

Delete the reference numbers one at a time using the first method in this guide. It takes longer, but it works in any editor that lets you edit .docx text.

📝 Summary

Removing a footnote in a Word file means deleting its reference number, and removing all of them means using find and replace with the footnote mark code. Check the spacing and punctuation around each removed mark, then save the result under a new name so the original stays intact.

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