Footnote related changes and hacks in LaTeX

Continuous footnote numbering across chapters

By default, footnote numbering resets on a per chapter basis in several popular LaTeX classes (memoir, report, and others.)

In order to prevent the reset per chapter, and have continuous footnote numbering across an entire document, the chngcntr package can be used.

\usepackage{chngcntr}
\counterwithout{footnote}{chapter}

The same can be done with table numbering thus,

\usepackage{chngcntr}
\counterwithout{table}{chapter}

Changing from numbering to footnote symbols

The standard footnote macros allow switching between numbering and a series of symbols. Accomplish this by,

\renewcommand*{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}

Remove indentation of footnote

To remove the paragraph indent from footnotes, use the footmisc package by placing the following in your LaTeX preamble:

\usepackage[hang,flushmargin]{footmisc}