Formatting Consecutive Reference Callouts using a Dash "-"

[Ayman Fadel]

I edit medical manuscripts, and frequently there will be 3 or more references
at the end of a sentence. When I insert references, I get, let's say,
callouts 6,7,8 for endnotes 6, 7 and 8. Is there any way for me to make the
callouts appear as "6-8" superscripted, yet preserve the functionality of the
MS Word reference system such that if I needed to reorder the references, MS
Word would still renumber things properly?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Insert all the references sequentially, without intervening punctuation.
Then insert an en dash after the first or before the last. Select the ones
between the first and the last and format them as Hidden (Ctrl+Shift+H). The
endnotes will still be there, and numbering will update automatically with
insertions and deletions, but if you move the notes such that your Hidden
references change order with the non-Hidden ones, you may need to make some
changes in the formatting.

One suggestion, though: if you're using ordinary endnotes (as opposed to
numbered references, which might be cited in random order), I'd suggest that
you combine all the endnotes into one, separating the sources with
semicolons. This is preferred to having multiple endnote references in the
same place.