How to add footnotes to a book

In short

In Write, click where the number should go, then press ⌘⌥F (Ctrl+Alt+F on Windows) or choose Footnote from the + beside the paragraph. Type the note in the Footnotes panel and it prints at the foot of that page.

Footnotes are the part of a long book that goes wrong when you number them by hand. Add a note in chapter two and every number after it is now wrong, including the ones in chapter nine. Keep the note text in a separate file and you will eventually print a number with nothing under it. Here the number follows the place you put it, and the note travels with that number into the printed pages and the ebook, so you can read both before you order a proof.

Add a footnote#

1. Open Write

   Open your book. In the bar under the header, click Write, next to Layout. The manuscript opens as one continuous column, the same text, without the page breaks in the way while you edit.

2. Place the caret

   Click in the text at the point the small number should appear. That is usually right after a word, a closing quotation mark, or a period, with no space before the number.

3. Insert the footnote

   Press ⌘⌥F (Ctrl+Alt+F on Windows). To use the menu instead, hover the paragraph, click + in the left margin, and choose Footnote.

   A superscript number appears at the caret. The Footnotes panel opens on the right, under Notes, with an empty note waiting.

4. Write the note

   Click the field whose placeholder reads The note… and type the note. The words are saved when you leave the field. On the printed page the note sits at the foot of the page the number lands on, and the lines above it move up to make room.

5. Move notes to the back

   At the top of the Footnotes panel, open Print notes and choose In a section at the back. The notes leave the foot of each page and gather in one section at the end of the book, which starts on its own page. The lines that had moved up to make room settle back down.

   A Section heading field appears under the menu. The gray Notes in it is a placeholder, not a title: leave the field empty and the section has no heading. Type one if you want a heading there, then click away to save it. Choose At the foot of the page again whenever you want the notes back under the text. The notes themselves stay as they are.

Take a footnote back#

Choose At the foot of the page under Print notes to put the notes back under the text. The switch is one undo step as well, so ⌘Z returns them to the foot of the page.

To remove one note, click its number in the Footnotes panel and then Delete. Find anchor jumps to that number in the text first, if you want to see where it sits. Delete removes the note text, and undo does not bring those words back. Removing the number from the manuscript does: press ⌘Z and both the number and the note return, until you save the book.

For the rest of what a print file is checked for before you upload, read what KDP checks in an interior PDF.