Table footnote numbering

[Combs, Richard]

Alan Litchfield wrote:
 
> It's just that I have two tables on one page (both tables span pages,
the
> first starts on the previous page and the second finishes on the
succeeding
> page). Both tables have footnotes and so both have the same sequence
of
> letters. This may be a source of confusion for some readers because
the
> letter
> "a" for the first footnote in the first table is on the previous page
and
> the
> footnote is on the current page, but the first footnote in the second
table
> appears on the succeeding page but its letter "a" is on the current
page.
> 
> Therefore you have a table footnote on the current page and a letter
"a"
> too,
> but they relate to different footnotes and tables. I know the footnote
> appears
> *above* the letter "a", but one can never under-estimate the lack of
> comprehension of some readers.

I think you can justify living with it. Assuming these aren't the first
tables with footnotes in this book, your readers will have had the
opportunity to learn by previous examples that table footnotes always
appear at the bottom of the table. 

If there is any intervening text between the two tables (even just a
heading or table title), I think the chances of a normally functional
human being getting confused are pretty close to nil. 

Trying to guard against the rare exception may lead you afoul of a
corollary to Baker's Paradox: 

"Any procedure that anticipates every possible misunderstanding will be
incomprehensible to all users."
	-- Mark Baker

IMHO, YMMV, etc. 

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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