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When referencing a footnote using an asterisk or other acceptable symbols such as dagger and double dagger, in the footnote itself do you put a space between the symbol and the note?

Example:

This is a reference* to a footnote.

Which is the correct footnote format or style?

With space:

* Lorem ipsum.

Without space:

*Lorem ipsum.

This confusion is due to the fact that footnote references that uses numbers are shown differently. A fullstop and space is the correct styling. Example.

This is a reference¹ to a footnote.

1. Lorem ipsum.
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  • You can't expect to do proper typesetting purely with characters you type in at the keyboard, which is what's needed here. What's a "space"? An en space? An em space? A three/four/five/six-per-em space? A figure space? A punctuation space? A thin space or a hair space? Are you setting these using the fonts superiors? You need a real desktop publishing system for this, or else it just doesn't matter.
    – tchrist
    May 25, 2022 at 14:59
  • 1
    Actually, I think is a good question.
    – Rafael
    May 25, 2022 at 15:23

1 Answer 1

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Yes, I generally use a narrow space like third, quarter or thin space.

However, if you have multiple footnotes, or they span across multiple lines, or the numbering/symbols take up more space, you then need to use indentation (indents & first line indents).

Taking this one step further you can right align the symbols and left align the text content, thus making the symbols/numbering float to the outside of the text area.

enter image description here

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