Automatically Update Footnote Numbers in Word When Using Supra References

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If you’re writing a law review style article, you may find yourself using supra references in the footnotes. For example, if you frequently cite to Smith, you might write a footnote that looks something like this:

16 Smith, supra note 5.

You run into problems with your footnote numbering when you add a few sentences with footnotes to the beginning of your paper, and suddenly the original Smith reference is no longer in footnote 5, it’s now in footnote 6.

Of course, you can manually change your footnote numbers when you’re done writing, but this can be tedious.

There’s a number of steps to it, but here’s how to update your footnotes automatically in Word 2013 when using a supra reference:

  • Start writing your footnote: “Smith, supra note”
  • Up top, go to Insert >> Links >> Cross-Reference.
  • Under Reference type, choose “Footnote”; under Insert reference to, choose “Footnote number”
  • Under For which footnote, highlight the footnote to which you want the supra reference to refer.
  • Click Insert, then click Close.
  • When you want to automatically update the supra reference numbers, do this:
  • Click your cursor anywhere inside the footnote fields.
  • Hit Ctrl A.
  • Hit F9.
  • You will see the message: “Word cannot undo this action. Do you want to continue?” Click Yes.
  • Your supra reference will then be automatically updated.

 

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