Footnote and Endnote Types

There are four different types of footnotes and endnotes:

• Normal – contain the text of any footnote (or endnote) in the document.

• Separator – define the separator used to separate the footnote (or endnote) from the document text.

• Continuation separator – define the separator used to separate the footnote (or endnote) from the document text when the footnote or endnote is a continuation from the previous page.

• Continuation notice – define the notice text to let readers know that the footnote (or endnote) has continued on the next page.

The attribute @type specifies the type of footnote or endnote. Normal footnotes or endnotes are specified by a type of normal or by omitting @type. In conjunction to a normal type, a footnote reference mark, specified by <footnoteRef> element, or endnote reference mark, specified by <endnoteRef> element, must be present within the footnote or endnote definition.

Consider the following page in a document, where some text is referenced by a footnote at the end of a page:

The footnote text at the bottom of the page is a normal type footnote represented by the following WordprocessingML:

<w:footnote w:id="2">
  <w:p>
    <w:pPr>
      <w:pStyle w:val="FootnoteText" />
    </w:pPr>
    <w:r>
      <w:rPr>
        <w:rStyle w:val="FootnoteReference" />
      </w:rPr>
      <w:footnoteRef />
    </w:r>
    <w:r>
      <w:t>Cool reference</w:t>
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:footnote>

Not specifying any @type attribute in the <footnote> element defaults to being a normal type of footnote. In this example, the footnote has a unique ID of 2. The text of the footnote is contained in the text run. Like any paragraph, footnotes can be associated with a particular style, and, in this example, the paragraph uses the FootnoteText paragraph style. Similarly, like any run, footnotes can be associated with a particular style, and, in this example, the run uses the FootnoteReference run style.

Separator footnotes or endnotes are specified by separator. These types of footnotes or endnotes define the look of the separator used to separate document text from footnotes or endnotes. In conjunction to separator type, a footnote or endnote separator reference mark, specified by a <separator> element must be present within the footnote or endnote definition.

Consider the following page in a document, where some text is referenced by a footnote at the end of a page:

The line separating the document text from the footnote is represented by the following WordprocessingML:

<w:footnote w:type="separator" w:id="0">
  <w:p>
    <w:pPr>
      <w:spacing w:after="0" w:line="240" w:lineRule="auto" />
    </w:pPr>
    <w:r>
      <w:separator />
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:footnote>

In this example, the footnote has a unique ID of 0. The vertical spacing after the line separator is 0 twentieths of a point. The vertical spacing between the line separator and text is 240 twentieths of a point.

Continuation separator footnotes or endnotes are specified by continuationSeparator. These types of footnotes or endnotes define the look of the separator used to separate document text from footnotes or endnotes when the footnote or endnote continues the next page. In conjunction to a continuationSeparator type, a footnote or endnote continuation separator reference mark, specified by <continuationSeparator> element must be present within the footnote or endnote definition.

Consider the following two pages in a document, where some text is referenced by a footnote that extends to the next page:

The line separating the document text from the footnote that is continued on the next page (circled in red in the image above) is the continuation separator footnote, and is represented by the following WordprocessingML:

<w:footnote w:type="continuationSeparator" w:id="1">
  <w:p >
    <w:pPr>
      <w:spacing w:after="0" w:line="240" w:lineRule="auto" />
    </w:pPr>
    <w:r>
      <w:continuationSeparator />
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:footnote> 

In this example, the footnote has a unique ID of 1. The vertical spacing after the line separator is 0 twentieths of a point. The vertical spacing between the line separator and text is 240 twentieths of a point.

Continuation notice footnotes or endnotes are specified by continuationNotice. These types of footnotes or endnotes specify the text to let readers know that the footnote or endnote is continued on the next page.

Consider the following two pages in a document, where some text is referenced by a footnote that extends to the next page. A continuation notice is given to readers to indicate that the footnote extends to the next page:

The continuation notice text is at the bottom of the footnote indicating that the footnote is continued to the next page (which reads continued on next page above) and is represented by the following WordprocessingML:

<w:footnote w:type="continuationNotice" w:id="3">
  <w:p >
    <w:pPr>
      <w:spacing w:after="0" w:line="240" w:lineRule="auto" />
    </w:pPr>
    <w:r>
      <w:t>(continued on next page)</w:t>
    </w:r>
  </w:p>
</w:footnote> 

In this example, the footnote has a unique ID of 3. The text that shows up after the footnote text is (continued on next page).