The Find expression is having issues with strings like ([ABC]). It's fine with strings like ([ABC]x), however. Change the Find expression to:
.Text = "\(\[[!\(\[]@\]*\)"
and the code should run to completion in less than 1 minute.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Indeed: it works! Thank you for this code.

This is the first part of the job: in fact, I don't want to copy the reference as they appear but I use a dictionnary to put complete reference in the footnotes; this is not complicated, but the thing is that I must format the reference inside the footnote...

I've started to work on that, but before continuing, I am going to keep on looking for the portion of code that doesn't work, in order to understant better VBA, and to study the .Find method.

If anyone can help for that, by providing sources, sites, books reference or answering questions...

In any case, I acknowledge participants for their help!

It would have been helpful if you said from the outset what it is you want to achieve. Without knowing where these references comes from or how you want them to be formatted, it's impossible to progress the matter.

Given that your opening statements was "Indeed: it works!", I have no idea what you mean by "the portion of code that doesn't work".

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]