w:footnotePr (Footnote Properties)

Specifies document-level or section-level properties for footnotes, including position, number format, starting number, and restart behavior.

Parent elements

Child elements

Description

w:footnotePr configures how footnotes behave for the entire document (when in w:settings) or for a specific section (when in w:sectPr). Section-level settings override document-level defaults.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.11.12 (section) and §17.11.13 (document settings).

Child Elements

Element	Description
`w:pos`	Footnote position: `pageBottom` (default) or `beneathText`.
`w:numFmt`	Numbering format (e.g. `decimal`, `lowerRoman`, `lowerLetter`).
`w:numStart`	Starting number for footnote auto-numbering.
`w:numRestart`	When numbering restarts: `continuous`, `eachSect`, `eachPage`.
`w:footnote`	References specific separator/continuation footnote IDs to use for this section.

Examples

<!-- Document-level footnote settings: lowercase roman, restart each page -->
<w:settings>
  <w:footnotePr>
    <w:pos w:val="pageBottom"/>
    <w:numFmt w:val="lowerRoman"/>
    <w:numStart w:val="1"/>
    <w:numRestart w:val="eachPage"/>
  </w:footnotePr>
</w:settings>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var footnotePr = new FootnoteDocumentWideProperties(
    new FootnotePosition { Val = FootnotePositionValues.PageBottom },
    new NumberingFormat { Val = NumberFormatValues.LowerRoman },
    new NumberingStart { Val = 1 },
    new NumberingRestart { Val = RestartNumberValues.EachPage }
);

Notes

w:pos="beneathText" places footnotes directly below the last line of text on the page rather than at the page bottom.
When w:footnotePr appears in both w:settings and w:sectPr, the section-level settings take precedence for that section.
w:numRestart="eachSect" resets footnote numbering at the start of each section — useful for documents with chapter-based footnotes.