# Changing footnote symbols

I was wondering if there is way to change the symbols of footnotes to any symbol I want. I know there are some packages that put away the numbers and use predefined symbols, but I want to use some arbitrary symbol. Is there a way?

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Welcome to TeX.SX! "Arbitrary" is a bit too vague, may you be more specific? –  egreg Oct 18 '12 at 18:05
Thank you. \Mobilefone, \Telefon, \chi, \frownie, etc. Just any symbol. –  Francisco Oct 18 '12 at 18:15
Related Question: Changing footnote symbol within mdframed. –  Peter Grill May 8 at 1:45

The footnote symbol code is actually very simple:

\def\@fnsymbol#1{\ensuremath{\ifcase#1\or *\or \dagger\or \ddagger\or
\mathsection\or \mathparagraph\or \|\or **\or \dagger\dagger
\or \ddagger\ddagger \else\@ctrerr\fi}}


so if you were to copy that definition and replace \ddagger by \forall then the second footnote would get an inverted A.

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As starting point the definition of \@fnsymbol can be used (latex.ltx, source2e.pdf: "21 Counter and Lengths". The following example goes a step further and removes the upper limit for the counter value. If needed the symbol will be multiplied (see the doubling of symbols in \@fnsymbol) with the help of package alphalph:

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\myfnsymbolsingle}[1]{%
\ensuremath{%
\ifcase#1% 0
\or % 1
*%
\or % 2
\dagger
\or % 3
\ddagger
\or % 4
\mathsection
\or % 5
\mathparagraph
\else % >= 6
\@ctrerr
\fi
}%
}
\makeatother

\newcommand*{\myfnsymbol}[1]{%
\myfnsymbolsingle{\value{#1}}%
}

% remove upper boundary by multiplying the symbols if needed
\usepackage{alphalph}
\newalphalph{\myfnsymbolmult}[mult]{\myfnsymbolsingle}{}

\renewcommand*{\thefootnote}{%
\myfnsymbolmult{\value{footnote}}%
}

\begin{document}
\footnote{a}\footnote{b}\footnote{c}\footnote{d}\footnote{e}%
\footnote{f}\footnote{g}\footnote{h}\footnote{i}\footnote{j}%
\footnote{k}\footnote{l}\footnote{m}\footnote{n}\footnote{o}%
\end{document}


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Works in Beamer too! (Yes, I know footnotes are bad :) –  nate May 8 at 4:38

You can use footmisc and define a set of symbols with \DefineFNsymbols (text-only symbols, i.e. no math) and \DefineFNsymbolsTM (for text or math symbols)

\DefineFNsymbolsTM{myfnsymbols}{% def. from footmisc.sty "bringhurst" symbols
\textasteriskcentered *
\textdagger    \dagger
\textdaggerdbl \ddagger
\textsection   \mathsection
\textbardbl    \|%
\textparagraph \mathparagraph
}%


And call it with

\setfnsymbol{myfnsymbols}


Here's a MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[symbol*]{footmisc}
\DefineFNsymbolsTM{myfnsymbols}{% def. from footmisc.sty "bringhurst" symbols
\textasteriskcentered *
\textdagger    \dagger
\textdaggerdbl \ddagger
\textsection   \mathsection
\textbardbl    \|%
\textparagraph \mathparagraph
}%
\setfnsymbol{myfnsymbols}
\begin{document}
\footnote{a}\footnote{b}\footnote{c}
\footnote{d}\footnote{e}\footnote{f}
\end{document}


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I found these explanations a bit confusing. I wanted $\star$ as a footnote symbol, so I just did

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{$\star$}


and now I get what I want on the next footnote.

I assume that this generalizes to any symbol X by writing

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{X}

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While this might work, it also fixes the footnote symbol to $\star$ for all subsequent footnotes. –  Werner Oct 27 '13 at 17:39