Dear developers, I think there is an aesthetic problem with the redefinition of fnsymbol in fixltx2e, as exemplified with the use the manyfoot package: say, with \newcounter{footnoteS} \newcommand{\footnoteS}{% ... \renewcommand{\thefootnoteS}{\fnsymbol{footnoteS}} you get, with fixltx2e active, \textsuperscript{\textasteriskcentered} for the first footnote mark, which looks unpleasant; but with fixltx2e commented out, you get \textsuperscript{$\ast$}, because then, as I see it, latex.ltx definition is taken: \def\@fnsymbol#1{\ensuremath{\ifcase#1\or * ... instead of the one in fixltx2e: \def\@fnsymbol#1{% \ifcase#1\or \TextOrMath\textasteriskcentered * ... Of course there is a quick and *very* dirty "solution" ---after calling fixltx2e: \makeatletter \def\@fnsymbol#1{% %% \ifcase#1\or \TextOrMath\textasteriskcentered *\or% original line \ifcase#1\or $*$\or ... With the other symbols there is no problem, of course, as \textsuperscript{\textdagger} and \textsuperscript{$\dagger$} produce the same result. Thanks for your kind attention. Axel