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I am using the SIG-Alternate.cls - Version 2.5 template for my document. I want to have a \footnote{...} in a table. Because my table is very big I use the table* environment. The footnote also needs to have no number or mark whatsoever. What I have tried:

\documentclass{sig-alternate}
\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\alph{footnote}}
\begin{document}
% some text here
\begin{table*}
  \begin{tabular}
    % actual table
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Some caption text}
\end{table*}\let\thefootnote\relax\footnote{$^*$The footnote text}
% some more text here
\end{document}

This results in having the footnote on the wrong page. Is there any way to make sure the footnote in on the same page as my 'whole page sized' table? I have another smaller table marked up in the same way, which is not on it's own page, but also with this table I am not able to have the footnote on the same page as the table.

If I put the \let\thefootnote\relax\footnote{$^*$The footnote text} in the tabular environment, then there is no footnote at all.

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  • How are your readers supposed that a markless footnote refers to the figure?
    – egreg
    Oct 30, 2014 at 21:12
  • In the table cells I use $^*$ multiple times, so if I let the footer text start with $^*$ it would be clear. Oct 30, 2014 at 21:14
  • It would be clearer if those explanations are in the caption.
    – egreg
    Oct 30, 2014 at 21:16
  • That would make the caption very very long, thus I would still like the solution as I described in the question and not use this workaround. Oct 30, 2014 at 21:18
  • nobody says that there can't be separate text in a table environment after the end of the tabular, not part of the caption. also, it's usually more common for table captions to be above the table, but that's irrelevant to the question. Oct 31, 2014 at 13:08

1 Answer 1

12

I suggest you load the threeparttable package, especially as it seems to be fully compatible with the sig-alternate document class. The package's purpose is to allow footnote material to stay with the tabular environment. The three parts of a threeparttable are \caption, the tabular (or tabular*, tabularx, etc) environment, and the tablenotes environment. The footnote marks can be almost anything you want, and footnote marks (say, an asterisk) can be repeated. A threeparttable environment should be encased in table or table* environment to make it "float" (in the LaTeX sense of the word, of course).

I would not recommend leaving off the footnote marks. However, it's entirely possible to do so. E.g., in the code below you'd leave off the \tnote{*} instructions inside the tabular environment and omit [*] after the first \item directive in the tablenotes environment.

enter image description here

\documentclass{sig-alternate}
\usepackage[flushleft]{threeparttable} % http://ctan.org/pkg/threeparttable
\usepackage{booktabs,caption}
\begin{document}
\begin{table*}
  \centering
  \caption{Tabular Material}
  \begin{threeparttable}
  \begin{tabular}{llll}
    \toprule
    123\tnote{*} & 456 & 789\tnote{*} & abc\tnote{a}\\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \begin{tablenotes}
  \item[*] The footnote text.
  \item[a] Another footnote.
  \end{tablenotes}
  \end{threeparttable}
\end{table*}
\end{document}
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  • The footnote is directly under the table, between the table and the caption. Though it would be nice to have it as a normal footnote in the footer of the page, but this looks nice as well. Thank you for your complete and clear example. Oct 30, 2014 at 21:58
  • @martijnn2008 - If you want the caption to be at the bottom, below the table-related footnotes, just move the \caption command to some place after the tablenotes environment.
    – Mico
    Oct 30, 2014 at 22:06
  • That is exactly how it is already. I mean the footnotes in the footer of the page, now it's directly under the table. In my example the \caption is also under the \end{tabular}. Oct 30, 2014 at 22:09
  • How to make the footnote in this table environment appear as the normal footnote in the footer of the page?
    – Tanvir
    Aug 22, 2016 at 7:22
  • @Tanvir - You pose a good question, but it's quite unrelated to the one posted here. This site works best if new questions are posed as, well, new postings.
    – Mico
    Aug 22, 2016 at 8:36

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