# footnoting with keyboard only in Word97?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 27, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913 "2002-04-27T05:03:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913/1 "2002-04-27T05:03:18Z")

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How do you do insert a footnote without having your hands leave the keyboard to grapple with the mouse and drop the menu down…? Is there a way to do it? Any help greatly appreciated!

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913/2 "2002-04-27T05:28:40Z")

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I assume you are using a Windows machine. In this case, press Alt, and then navigate through the pull-down menus with the cursor keys. Press enter to select the menu option for footnoting.

Word probably allows you to automate this process slightly through recorded macros – see your manual/help file for details.

Now, perhaps the question you should _really_ be asking is why you’re using Word in the first place… There are far more efficient and elegant ways of typesetting text.

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**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913/3 "2002-04-27T05:31:46Z")

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I usually press:

Alt  
i (to get to the insert tab)  
n (for footnote on the menu)

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**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/footnoting-with-keyboard-only-in-word97/105913/4 "2002-04-27T22:49:53Z")

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Oh, it’s _Alt_-i. Thanks so much! I’ll try it out. Now, I’m real used to using Word97. Even Word 2000 bothers me because of the little differences. People say that WordPerfect is better than the Words, but that would entail the transition to it, and besides, it seems to be fading relative to the Words in institutional use (college campus in south, sort of).