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Chicago Style (17th ed.): Notes-Bibliography

Guide to formatting and citing using the notes-bibliography format for Chicago Style, 17th. ed.

Add Footnotes in Word

  1. Place your cursor at the end of a sentence that needs a citation, to the right of the period.
  2. Switch to the References toolbar. (Not Insert.)
  3. Click the Insert Footnote button.
  4. If you're not using our template, you'll need to reformat the footnote to match CMOS style.

Repeat as needed!

Word will take care of numbering everything for you and otherwise arranging the page to fit the citations in.

Word toolbars highlighting the Reference menu and Insert Footnote button

You will need to do some slight reformatting to your footnotes to make them fit Chicago Style. Footnotes should be single-spaced (with an empty line separating each footnote) and use a first line indent.

Default Word footnotes (wrong for Chicago Style):

Default footnote example: the size, spacing, and alignment are all wrong for Chicago Style.

Chicago-formatted footnotes:

Correct Chicago footnotes in size 12 Times New Roman, with an empty line in between footnotes and a first-line indent applied.

Our document template has already been formatted to Chicago style for all parts of the paper, including the footnotes.

Add Footnotes in Google Docs

  1. Place your cursor at the end of a sentence that needs a citation, to the right of the period.
  2. Click into the Insert menu.
  3. Click Footnote.
  4. You'll need to reformat the footnote to match CMOS style.

Repeat as needed!

Google Docs will take care of numbering everything for you and otherwise arranging the page to fit the citations in.

Google Docs Insert menu highlighting the footnote option

Fixing Google Docs Footnotes

Manually

  1. Highlight your footnote(s).
  2. Change the font size and style to match your main document.
  3. With everything still highlighted, go to Format > Align & Indent > Indentation options. 
    1. Select “first line” in the dropdown menu for Special indentation, and in the empty field, set it to 0.5”.
  4. Click to the end of each footnote and hit Shift+Enter. This adds a line break which visually adds a space between footnotes.
  5. Repeat for other pages.

 

Auto Re-Format Footnotes

You can also install a free third party add-on called Footnote Style to edit all your footnotes at once.

  1. Click on the + in the toolbar to the far right side of your screen. 
  2. Search for Footnote Style and add it to your workspace. 
  3. In your document, highlight a correctly formatted footnote (follow steps above, or use our template and select one of our example footnotes (1 or 2)). 
  4. In the menu bar of the document click Extensions > Footnote Style > Match footnote style to selection.