# Yet another Word question - updating cross-references in footnotes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 15, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210 "2018-05-15T13:23:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/1 "2018-05-15T13:23:27Z")
Right, I’ve got a long document with a lot of foot-notes. In those footnotes, I’ve got cross-references to footnotes: “See Smith text, footnote ##” Now I’ve inserted some new footnotes so need to update the cross-references. What used to do it : 1. Put cursor in a footnote. 2. Press control-A to select all footnotes. 3. Press F9 and get a dialogue box: “Word cannot reverse this action. Are you sure you want to do it?” or some such. 4. Press “Accept”. 5. All cross-references magically update. My problem is at step 3. Now when I press F9, it opens the control panels, showing all the different control panels, no dialogue box. Any ideas, O Word mavens? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/2 "2018-05-15T15:23:18Z")
Weird. When I was posting this thread, I was at home, using my laptop. Back in the office, put the laptop in the docking station and tried again, using the keyboard plugged into the docking station. And this time, F9 worked and brought up the dialogue box. ? So, is F9 on the laptop keyboard a different function than F9 on a stand-alone keyboard plugged into the computer in the docking station? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/3 "2018-05-15T18:27:11Z")
Don’t know what version you have so these instructions may not be exact, but try: File - Options - Display and under printing options check update fields before printing (and perhaps update linked data before printing). Then a print preview should update the references. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/4 "2018-05-15T19:16:55Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Weird. When I was posting this thread, I was at home, using my laptop. Back in the office, put the laptop in the docking station and tried again, using the keyboard plugged into the docking station. > > And this time, F9 worked and brought up the dialogue box. ? > > So, is F9 on the laptop keyboard a different function than F9 on a stand-alone keyboard plugged into the computer in the docking station? > > 😕 On most laptops I’m familiar with, the function keys do double duty with certain “hardware control” keys. On the HP I’m using at this moment, “F9” is “volume up” unless I use the “fn” function shift key. (In other words, the function keys actually default to not being function keys. 😕 ) Dunno about your laptop, but some variation of that arrangement seems common across many different manufacturers. I’ve seen it on Acers and Toshibas as well. ETA: Another possibility: you had a stuck “modifier” key, so that instead of hitting “F9” you were hitting “control-F9” or something of the like. That’s a distinctly different command shortcut and would definitely open a different dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/5 "2018-05-16T12:13:03Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Don’t know what version you have so these instructions may not be exact, but try: > > File - Options - Display > and under printing options check update fields before printing (and perhaps update linked data before printing). > > Then a print preview should update the references. I didn’t know about that way to do it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2018, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-word-question-updating-cross-references-in-footnotes/814210/6 "2018-05-16T12:14:21Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > On most laptops I’m familiar with, the function keys do double duty with certain “hardware control” keys. On the HP I’m using at this moment, “F9” is “volume up” unless I use the “fn” function shift key. (In other words, the function keys actually default to not being function keys. 😕 ) Thanks for this as well. Using my laptop now, and by pressing the FN - F9 combination, I got the dialogue box I was looking for. So now I have two different ways to update cross-references. Thanks, guys!