How to insert a footnote

To insert a footnote, press Alt+Ctrl+F to insert one using the default settings, or select the References tab and, in the Footnotes group, click Insert Footnote. This will still use the default settings, but if you want to change anything (for example, to use an asterisk instead of a number), click the dialog launcher (small arrow) in the bottom right corner of the Footnotes group to open the Footnote and Endnote dialog and select your desired settings.

The Help button is the question mark in the top right corner but F1 opens Help in any Windows application.

Open the Footnote and Endnote dialog as described above and make sure that the "Start at" number is not set to 2.

If you find that "Start at" is set to 1 and you're still getting 2 for the first footnote, then there must be a previous footnote somewhere that is hidden. You can search for it.

1. Press Ctrl+Home to go to the beginning of your document.
2. Display Hidden text by clicking the Show/Hide ¶ button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab (or press Ctrl+*).
3. Press Ctrl+H to open the Replace dialog and select the Find tab.
4. In the "Find what" box, type ^f (the code for a footnote reference mark).
5. Click Find Next.

If Find places the insertion point somewhere other than the footnote you inserted, even if there isn't a visible footnote reference, select a character or two on either side of the insertion point and Delete. Then retype the deleted characters. If there was a phantom footnote reference there, it will have been removed.

If that doesn't solve the problem, there may be a phantom footnote rather than a reference in the text. Switch to Draft view (View | Views | Draft), then switch back to the References tab and click Show Notes in the Footnotes group. Make sure there's no content before the note you inserted. You can also use Find to search for a footnote reference mark in the footnotes pane.