WD: Footnote References Renumbered in Word Tables

ID: Q193191

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.1a, 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.1a

SUMMARY

When you use footnotes in a table, it is possible that the numbering for individual footnotes may change as new footnotes are added within the table. This behavior will occur any time that a footnote reference is inserted to the right and above an existing footnote reference.

This renumbering is automatic and should not cause any problems unless you make references to the original numbering by directly typing the reference.

When you refer to footnote references in a table, use the field code NOTEREF (FTNREF in Word 2.0 and earlier). This will always reflect the proper footnote reference as additional footnotes are inserted into the table.

For example, insert the following field to create a cross-reference to a footnote:

   {NOTEREF BookmarkName}

In this example, BookmarkName is a bookmark that you place on the footnote reference number in the document, not in the footnote pane.

MORE INFORMATION

Using Footnote References in a Table

Footnote reference numbering in tables is based on a top-down, left-to-right scheme. This is because each cell of the table is considered to be a paragraph. Because it is possible that the table may be changed to text, the numbering of the footnotes must reflect the ordering of the paragraphs after conversion to text.

Consider the following sample table. Each entry, ftx, represents the order in which the footnote references are inserted.

   |---------------------------------------------------------------|
   |ft1            |ft4            |               |               |
   |               |               |               |               |
   |---------------------------------------------------------------|
   |ft2            |               |               |               |
   |               |               |               |               |
   |---------------------------------------------------------------|
   |               |ft5            |               |               |
   |               |               |               |               |
   |---------------------------------------------------------------|
   |ft3            |               |               |               |
   |               |               |               |               |
   |---------------------------------------------------------------|

After entering ft3, your footnote reference area would be listed in the following order, as expected:

   _____________
   1 this is the reference for ft1
   2 this is the reference for ft2
   3 this is the reference for ft3

When ft4 is inserted the numbering will change to the following:

   _____________
   1 this is the reference for ft1
   2 this is the reference for ft4
   3 this is the reference for ft2
   4 this is the reference for ft3

ft4 becomes reference 2 because it is in the row before ft2 and will be the second paragraph of text when the table is converted to text.

After inserting ft5, the numbering will be as follows:

   _____________
   1 this is the reference for ft1
   2 this is the reference for ft4
   3 this is the reference for ft2
   4 this is the reference for ft5
   5 this is the reference for ft3

ft5 is also in a row above the cell containing ft3.

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word for Windows User's Guide," version 2.0, page 749

Additional query words: foot note

Keywords          : kbdta wordnt winword ntword macword kbtable word6 word7 word95 
Version           : MACINTOSH:6.0,6.0.1,6.0.1a; WINDOWS:1.0,1.1,1.1a,2.0,2.0a,2.0a-CD,2.0b,2.0c,6.0,6.0a,6.0c,7.0,7.0a
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbinfo