Layout of multiple lines footnotes

Question

I have a question about footnotes with LaTeX:

I would like the multi-lines footnotes to look like:

1 This is the first line of the very, very long footnote
     and this is the second line of the very long footnote
     and this is the third line of the very long footnote.

How can I accomplish this? I already checked out package footmisc but could not find working options.

Answer 1

With the following code in the preamble one can use the normal \footnote command:

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@makefntext[1]{\leftskip=2em\hskip-2em\@makefnmark#1}
\makeatother

The footnote number will be flush with the left margin.

Answer 2

Use the scrextend package (which is part of KOMA-script) and its \deffootnote macro. See section 3.14 of the KOMA-script manual for details. (You may also use one of the KOMA-script classes instead of scrextend.)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\usepackage{scrextend}
\deffootnote[1em]{1.5em}{1em}{\textsuperscript{\thefootnotemark}}

\begin{document}

\blindtext\footnote{\blindtext}

\end{document}

Answer 3

Here's a better solution, using hanging and footmisc:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage[paperheight=8cm]{geometry}
% just to reduce sample size

\usepackage{hanging}
% provides the \hangpara command

\usepackage[flushmargin]{footmisc}
% sets the footnote mark just left of the left margin border

\renewcommand{\footnotemargin}{1em}
% changes the above and sets the footnote mark just right of the left margin border.

\newcommand{\fn}[1]{\footnote{\hangpara{3em}{1} #1}}
% makes a new footnote command \fn{} with a hanging indent of 3em (hanging indent starts after the first line)

\begin{document}

Hello\fn{This is the first line of the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long footnote
and this is the second line of the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long footnote
and this is the third line of the very long footnote.} 
World\fn{This is the first line of the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long footnote
and this is the second line of the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long footnote
and this is the third line of the very long footnote.}.

\end{document}

Regarding the \footnotemargin: This setting works for one- and two-digit footnote marks. If you only have one-digit marks, {0.5em} might be better; if you have three-digit footnote marks, you might want to change this value to {1.5em}, otherwise the first digit will stick into the left margin.

For more details see the documentations of hanging and footmisc.

Answer 4

While this isn't perfect yet, it does the trick using footmisc. Can anybody help with proper paragraph indentation without the \hspace?

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[hang]{footmisc}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\setlength{\footnotemargin}{1.3cm}

\newcommand{\fn}[1]{\footnote{\hspace{-1cm}#1}}

\begin{document}
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
Hello.\fn{\blindtext}
\end{minipage}
\end{document}

(The minipage is just to make the sample more compact, and the blindtext obviously is for the the blindtext. You'll probably have to alter the values a bit to make them suitable to your layout.)

Answer 5

You can enforce the layout of a multiline footnote with a parbox like this:

\footnote{ \parbox [t] {\linewidth} {a footnote with a linebreak\\
will use the overall parindent settings of the document. 
If the footnote is too long the line will just wrap like in normal paragraph mode.
The t parameter makes sure the footnote mark is placed relative to the first line } }