Footnotes

Subject: Footnotes
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 15:25:18 -0500

Jennifer Jelinek wondered about footnote styles. Jennifer,
any style guide that proposes that a strict order for
footnote symbols exists should be taken with a whole shaker
(not just a grain) of salt. It really doesn't matter what
you use for footnotes so long as you're consistent from
table to table (or page to page for text) and so long as no
reader will confuse the footnotes with the table entries or
text they apply to.

FWIW, I've always used _letters_ in tables and _numbers_ in
running text, and it works just fine. The advantage of both
is that I occasionally need more footnotes than daggers
etc. permit, but never more than the 26 options the
alphabet permits. The only time it's ever a problem is when
someone is reporting levels of statistical significance,
and then all I need to do is use letters higher up in the
alphabet (x, y and z typically) that don't clash with the
footnotes.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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