References and review: footnotes, Editor, comments and Track Changes

In this lesson you will learn

Add footnotes, citations and a bibliography
Check spelling and grammar with Editor and count words
Write comments, track, accept or reject changes and compare two versions

Leyla sends her science project to her teacher. When the teacher sends it back, Leyla can instantly see which words were deleted, what was added and which questions were written in the margin — no manual comparing needed. These are Word's review tools. Serious work also has to show where its information came from — that is what footnotes and citations are for.

Footnotes and sources

Put the cursor after the word you want to explain and click References › Footnotes › Insert Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+F). A small number appears next to the word and the cursor jumps to the bottom of the page — type the explanation or source there. Insert Endnote (Ctrl+Alt+D) puts the note at the end of the document instead. The numbers always update automatically; to delete a note, delete the small number in the text.

1
Choose a citation style
In References › Citations & Bibliography › Style, choose the style your teacher requires, e.g. APA or MLA.
2
Add a source
Click Insert Citation › Add New Source…, choose the source type (Book, Web site…) and fill in the author, title and year. A citation in brackets appears in the text.
3
Build the bibliography
At the end of the document choose References › Citations & Bibliography › Bibliography. Word builds a list of all sources in the chosen style; update it after adding new sources.

Spelling, Editor and word count

Word checks as you type: a red wavy line means a spelling mistake, a blue double line a grammar or style suggestion. Right-click the word and choose the right option — or Ignore All, or Add to Dictionary (handy for surnames). To check the whole document, open Review › Proofing › Editor (F7): the pane walks through the issues one by one. If the text's language is set wrongly, every word may be red: select the text and change the language under Review › Language › Language › Set Proofing Language….

The status bar always shows the word count. For detailed statistics open Review › Proofing › Word Count (Ctrl+Shift+G): pages, words, characters with and without spaces, paragraphs and lines. Select part of the text and you get statistics for just that part. Review › Speech › Read Aloud reads the text out loud — a great way to catch your own mistakes by ear.

Comments and Track Changes

A comment lets you write a question or note in the margin without changing the text: select the text and click Review › Comments › New Comment (Ctrl+Alt+M). You can reply to a comment, mark it Resolve, or Delete it. When Track Changes (Review › Tracking › Track Changes, Ctrl+Shift+E) is on, Word records every deletion and insertion and shows it in colour.

View (`Display for Review`)	What it shows
`Simple Markup`	Clean text; a red line in the margin next to changed lines
`All Markup`	Every change: deleted text struck through, inserted text underlined
`No Markup`	How the text will look if every change is accepted
`Original`	The original text before the changes

Example: accepting the teacher's edits

The teacher edited Leyla's project with Track Changes on and left two comments. Leyla must go through the edits, accept the right ones and send back a clean document.

Show solution

1. In the Review › Tracking group set the view to All Markup so every change is visible.
2. Go to the first change with Review › Changes › Next.
3. Click Accept if you agree or Reject if you don't — Word moves on to the next change automatically.
4. Read the comments, reply if needed, then remove them with Review › Comments › Delete › Delete All Comments in Document.
5. Check that the document is clean in the No Markup view and turn Track Changes off.

If someone changed a document without Track Changes, Review › Compare › Compare… helps: pick the Original document and the Revised document, and Word creates a third document that shows the differences as tracked changes.

Insert a footnote (Ctrl+Alt+D — an endnote)Ctrl+Alt+F

Editor: spelling and grammar checkF7

ThesaurusShift+F7

Word Count dialogCtrl+Shift+G

New commentCtrl+Alt+M

Turn Track Changes on or offCtrl+Shift+E

Key points

Footnote: References › Insert Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+F); numbers update automatically.
Insert Citation adds a source; Bibliography builds the reference list.
Red wavy line — spelling, blue double line — grammar; full check with F7.
Track Changes records every edit; Accept and Reject approve or undo them.
Before sending a document, resolve every change and delete the comments.

Check yourself

10 questions. Every correct answer earns XP.

1 / 10

Which command adds an explanatory note at the bottom of the page?