To freeze the footnotes, you can convert them to endnotes which can then be
turned into plain text by the following macro (created by Doug Robbins):
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Sub ConvertEndnotesToPlainText()
'Macro by MVP Doug Robbins
Dim aendnote As Endnote
For Each aendnote In ActiveDocument.Endnotes
ActiveDocument.Range.InsertAfter vbCr & aendnote.Index & vbTab & _
aendnote.Range
aendnote.Reference.InsertBefore "a" & aendnote.Index & "a"
Next aendnote
For Each aendnote In ActiveDocument.Endnotes
aendnote.Reference.Delete
Next aendnote
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "(a)([0-9]{1,})(a)"
.Replacement.Text = "(\2)"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
.MatchWildcards = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub
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