You have to save (using \let
) the original definition and reinstate it afterwards. Also, I decrement the footnote counter, so that the blank footnote doesn't increment the index.
\documentclass{article}
\let\svthefootnote\thefootnote
\textheight 1in
\begin{document}
First Footnote,%
\let\thefootnote\relax\footnote{some text}
\addtocounter{footnote}{-1}\let\thefootnote\svthefootnote
next footnote\footnote{some more text}
\end{document}

Alternatively, you can use \footnotetext
for the blank footnote, and then you don't have to reset the footnote counter (but you still have to reinstate the definition of \thefootnote
).
\documentclass{article}
\let\svthefootnote\thefootnote
\textheight 1in
\begin{document}
First Footnote,%
\let\thefootnote\relax\footnotetext{some text}
\let\thefootnote\svthefootnote
next footnote\footnote{some more text}
\end{document}
Putting this all together, you can make it into a macro, \blankfootnote{}
:
\documentclass{article}
\let\svthefootnote\thefootnote
\textheight 1in
\newcommand\blankfootnote[1]{%
\let\thefootnote\relax\footnotetext{#1}%
\let\thefootnote\svthefootnote%
}
\begin{document}
First Footnote,\blankfootnote{some text}
next footnote\footnote{some more text}
\end{document}
And now, for the coup de grace, one can redefine the definition of \footnote
, so that the syntax \footnote[]{my footnote}
, which would otherwise break LaTeX, now is made to call on \blankfootnote
automagically. This way, you don't need to remember the separate command \blankfootnote
, but rather just use \footnote
with an explicitly blank optional argument:
\documentclass{article}
\let\svthefootnote\thefootnote
\textheight 1in
\newcommand\blankfootnote[1]{%
\let\thefootnote\relax\footnotetext{#1}%
\let\thefootnote\svthefootnote%
}
\let\svfootnote\footnote
\renewcommand\footnote[2][?]{%
\if\relax#1\relax%
\blankfootnote{#2}%
\else%
\if?#1\svfootnote{#2}\else\svfootnote[#1]{#2}\fi%
\fi
}
\begin{document}
First Footnote,\footnote[]{some text}
next footnote\footnote{some more text}
Force footnote number 5 here\footnote[5]{special footnote}
\end{document}

\footnote[]{footnote text}
to create an unnumbered footnote.