Make all footnotes numbered subsequently, but one with a symbol

Question

I was wandering if there's a way to make only one footnote appear with a symbol (*) instead of the number.

Thanks!!!

Answer 1

If you're not using anything fancy in your document (like hyperref, say), you can redefine \@xfootnote:

\documentclass{article}
%\setlength{\textheight}{.3\textheight} Just for this example
\makeatletter
\def\@xfootnote[#1]{%
  \protected@xdef\@thefnmark{#1}%
  \@footnotemark\@footnotetext}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
This is a\footnote{Regular footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote[*]{Different footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote{Regular footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote{Regular footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote[$\dagger$]{Different footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote{Regular footnote} piece of text.
This is a\footnote[$\star$]{Different footnote} piece of text.
\end{document}