Help with footnote numbers

[Graeme R Forbes]

Tina Ricks wrote:

"I've got the footnote body set to 10 points (Format > Document > Footnote
Properties). Unfortunately, this means (I think) that the footnote reference
(in the main text) is also 10 point superscript. "

No, the reference numeral's attributes in the main text are 
controlled by the default font settings of the paragraph in the main 
text. Change the default font to a dingbat font and you'll see what I 
mean -- it's independent of what you choose for the text of the 
footnote

So far as I know -- I'd love to learn I'm wrong -- the only way to 
change the number's attributes is to change the default font 
attributes in the Para Designer. In your case, set the default para 
fontsize to 9 points, apply, and the footnote reference number will 
shrink too.

But, you say, I don't want the regular text of the body paragraph to 
be 9 points. Solution: override.

I did this with a book I prepared proofs of a couple of years ago. I 
wanted old-style figures for the footnote reference numbers in the 
main text and at the start of the footnote. So I made an "Expert 
variant" format for every type of paragraph in the main text that 
could have a footnote number in it, and made Kepler Expert the 
default for the footnote text paragraph. Then I created two formats 
for overriding the unwanted Expert (i.e., all characters except the 
reference numbers), one to use in footnotes and one to use in body 
text.

This is not as painful as it sounds, unless you're changing a 
paragraph that's already been done in the old format, and it already 
contains a variety of Character Format overrides, as mine often did 
(math symbolism). Applying the format to change all the text in 
Expert (small caps for letters) back to the standard one overrides 
those other overrides if you apply it to all the paratext -- so 
either you do that, then go back and restore the original overrides, 
or else you apply the "regular text" override to segments between 
original character overrides. It's a whole lot better if you can 
anticipate in advance if your para is going to have a footnote in it, 
set the variant format, type space at the end, then start typing 
ahead of the space with the special override applied. But a lot of 
the time you can't anticipate this.

For at least 14 years people have been asking the owners of 
FrameMaker to fix the many problems with the footnoting facility, 
some of which require workarounds even uglier than the above. Don't 
hold your breath.

Graeme Forbes