Footnote symbols in order
When you mark footnotes with symbols instead of numbers, the traditional order is * † ‡ § ‖ ¶. For more notes than that, double them: **, ††, ‡‡ and so on.
The full sequence
| Order | Symbol | Name | Mac | Windows | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asterisk | Shift + 8 | Shift + 8 | * |
|
| 2 | Dagger | Option + T | Alt + 0134 |
† |
|
| 3 | Double dagger | Option + Shift + 7 | Alt + 0135 |
‡ |
|
| 4 | Section sign | Option + 6 | Alt + 0167 |
§ |
|
| 5 | Double vertical line | Character Viewer | Word: 2016 Alt + X |
‖ |
|
| 6 | Pilcrow | Option + 7 | Alt + 0182 |
¶ |
Mac shortcuts are for the US keyboard layout. Windows Alt codes need the number pad, with Num Lock on.
Style guides differ on the later symbols. Some use ‖ fifth and ¶ sixth, and some use # instead. The first four (* † ‡ §) are consistent everywhere. If you need more than four notes on a page, numbers are usually kinder to the reader.
After the sixth note
Double the symbols in the same order: **, ††, ‡‡, §§, ‖‖, ¶¶. Some styles triple them after that. If a page really needs twelve or more notes, it's time to switch to numbers.
Restart on each page
Symbol footnotes traditionally restart on every page, or in every table, so the first note on each page is always *. That keeps the marks short. Numbered footnotes usually run continuously through a chapter or document instead.
In Microsoft Word
Word does this for you: in the Footnote and Endnote dialog, set Number format to *, †, ‡, § and choose to restart numbering on each page. Our Word guide has the steps.