[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by Psymon

[...] that is, a person clicks the little superscript footnote number (or however it's done) and then they get a little "popup note".

I just wanted to toss in a comment here on the "superscript footnote". A long time ago I settled on the slightly more ugly, but much more functional [##] footnote. This is more functional ESPECIALLY on touch devices, because the superscript numbers can get very tiny, and can get very hard to push with your fat finger on smaller font sizes.

Did you ever run into those websites where a damn popup ad comes up, and has that dastardly small little "x" in the corner that is impossible to click?

Giving it some extra space around it with the brackets makes it much easier to push.

For example, this:

In fact, firms were able to hire increased quantities of labor at the frozen wage scales and employment grew at the rapid rate of 4.2 percent per annum from August to November 1971.<a href="#fn1" id="ft1">[1]</a></p>

[...]

<p><a href="#ft1" id="fn1">[1]</a> Michael R. Darby, “The U. S. Economic Stabilization Program of 1971–1974,” in Michael Walker (ed.), <i>The Illusion of Wage and Price Control</i> (Vancouver, Canada: The Fraser Institute, 1976) pp. 136–37.</p>

Is easier to click than this:

In fact, firms were able to hire increased quantities of labor at the frozen wage scales and employment grew at the rapid rate of 4.2 percent per annum from August to November 1971.<a href="#fn1" id="ft1">¹</a></p>

[...]

<p><a href="#ft1" id="fn1">¹</a> Michael R. Darby, “The U. S. Economic Stabilization Program of 1971–1974,” in Michael Walker (ed.), <i>The Illusion of Wage and Price Control</i> (Vancouver, Canada: The Fraser Institute, 1976) pp. 136–37.</p>

If you still want a superscript, at least settle on the mix of both:

In fact, firms were able to hire increased quantities of labor at the frozen wage scales and employment grew at the rapid rate of 4.2 percent per annum from August to November 1971.<a href="#fn1" id="ft1">^[1]</a></p>

[...]

<p><a href="#ft1" id="fn1">^[1]</a> Michael R. Darby, “The U. S. Economic Stabilization Program of 1971–1974,” in Michael Walker (ed.), <i>The Illusion of Wage and Price Control</i> (Vancouver, Canada: The Fraser Institute, 1976) pp. 136–37.</p>

Also, avoiding superscript footnotes is generally a good idea for certain typographical reasons in HTML/ebooks (not messing with the line-height, the footnote can be rendered at the normal font size (think accessibility reasons)).

Anyway, this is one of those things that typographers/style guides will debate over, and it is a balance between the beauty/functionality of the text..... I tend to favor the side of functionality/readability over "beauty" any day of the week.

The most important thing is to actually get the information in the book ACROSS to the reader.