Hi Avril,
You can, with a macro:
Sub Comments2Footnotes()
Dim myComment As Comment
Dim i
For i = ActiveDocument.Comments.Count To 1 Step -1
Set myComment = ActiveDocument.Comments(i)
myComment.Range.Copy
myComment.Reference.Select
myComment.Delete
ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Add Selection.Range
Selection.Footnotes(1).Range.Paste
Next i
End Sub
If you need help running the macro, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm
In case the numbering of the comments was applied with auto-numbering,
those numbers should disappear (since the unnumbered "footnote text" style
should be applied to the footnotes automatically).
If they have been typed, you could probably get rid of them with a wildcard
search:
In Edit > Replace, check "Match wildcards. Then:
Find what: (^2 )[0-9\).]@[^32^s^t]@
Replace with: \1
^2 is the code of a footnote reference (... ^f doesn't work in wildcard
searches).
You want to keep the footnote reference and the trailing blank, so you put
it in (braces), and re-use this (1st) expression in "Replace with", using
"\1".
The rest of the search expression matches any number of digits, possibly
dots or braces (as in "12." or "7)"), followed by whitespace (^32 = space,
^s = non-breaking space, ^t = tabstop).
Regards,
Klaus
