Footnote with special symbol in epigraph command

Question

I have a problem related to a question concerning footnotes and epigraph.

That is, in that question the following (superclean!) answer was given by egreg:

Just use \footcitetext:

\epigraph{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. 
  Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut}{Author\footnotemark}
\footcitetext{author00:_title}

However, with this answer it is not possible to obtain a symbol such as \dagger as a footnote symbol.

Below egreg's answer I asked him clarification and he kindly pointed out that it is possible to obtain such a result by using bigfootpackage.

How such solution should look like?

Thanks a lot in advance for any feedback.

Answer 1

I don't think bigfoot package is necessary, you could use

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

(saving - before - and restoring - after - the numeric value of the footnote counter).

For convenience, I've created two macros (\switchfootnotenumsym and \switchfootnotesymnum) for the switching between the two types of footnotes:

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
    @Book{author00:_title,
        author =   {Author},
        title =    {Title},
        publisher =    {Publisher},
        year =     2000}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[12pt,twoside,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english,french]{babel}
\frenchbsetup{StandardLists=true}

\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{xspace}
\usepackage{epigraph}

% New counter for switching from numeric footnotes to the ones with symbols and vice-versa
\newcounter{tempfootnote} 
% Macro for switching from numeric footnotes to the ones with symbols
\newcommand{\switchfootnotenumsym}{%
    \setcounter{tempfootnote}{\value{footnote}} % save the current value of footnote counter
    \setcounter{footnote}{0} 
    \renewcommand*{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}
}
% Newcommand for switching from the footnote with symbols to the numeric ones
\newcommand{\switchfootnotesymnum}{%
    \setcounter{footnote}{\value{tempfootnote}} 
    \renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\arabic{footnote}}
}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,
hyperref,
backend=biber,
isbn=false,
doi=false,
url=false,
date=year]{biblatex}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearlist{language}}
\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\space}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}

\begin{document}
    \switchfootnotenumsym
    \setcounter{footnote}{1}% if you want the \dagger (which is the number two) set the counter to one 
    \epigraph{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut}{Author\footnotemark}
    \footcitetext{author00:_title}
    \switchfootnotesymnum

    Normal text\footnote{Normal footnote}

    \switchfootnotenumsym
    This is only to show you the correspondence between numbers and symbols (they are only 9):

    1\footnote{footnote} 2\footnote{footnote} 3\footnote{footnote} 4\footnote{footnote} 5\footnote{footnote}
    6\footnote{footnote} 7\footnote{footnote} 8\footnote{footnote} 9\footnote{footnote} 
    \switchfootnotesymnum

    Other normal text\footnote{With other normal footnote}
\end{document}

Credits to Stefan Kottwitz.

Edit:

If you need a continuing symbol footnote counter (remember that the symbols are only 9, you will get an error if the symbol footnote counter becomes > 9):

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
    @Book{author00:_title,
        author =   {Author},
        title =    {Title},
        publisher =    {Publisher},
        year =     2000}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass[12pt,twoside,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english,french]{babel}
\frenchbsetup{StandardLists=true}

\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{xspace}
\usepackage{epigraph}

% New counters for switching from numeric footnotes to the ones with symbols and vice-versa
\newcounter{tempfootnotenum}
\newcounter{tempfootnotesym}
\setcounter{tempfootnotenum}{0}% initial value 
\setcounter{tempfootnotesym}{0}% initial value 

% Macro for switching from numeric footnotes to the ones with symbols
\newcommand{\switchfootnotenumsym}{%
    \setcounter{tempfootnotenum}{\value{footnote}}% save the current value of numeric footnote counter
    \setcounter{footnote}{\value{tempfootnotesym}}% restore the value of the previous symbol footnote counter
    \renewcommand*{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}% set footnote with symbols
}
% Newcommand for switching from the footnote with symbols to the numeric ones
\newcommand{\switchfootnotesymnum}{%
    \setcounter{tempfootnotesym}{\value{footnote}}% save the current value of symbol footnote counter
    \setcounter{footnote}{\value{tempfootnotenum}}% restore the value of the previous numeric footnote counter
    \renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\arabic{footnote}}% set numeric footnote
}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\usepackage[autostyle=true]{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=authoryear-comp,
hyperref,
backend=biber,
isbn=false,
doi=false,
url=false,
date=year]{biblatex}
\AtEveryBibitem{\clearlist{language}}
\renewcommand*{\newunitpunct}{\addcomma\space}
\bibliography{\jobname}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}

\begin{document}
    \switchfootnotenumsym
    \epigraph{Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut purus elit, vestibulum ut}{Author\footnotemark}
    \footcitetext{author00:_title}
    \switchfootnotesymnum

    Normal text\footnote{Normal footnote}

    \switchfootnotenumsym
    \epigraph{We love ducks}{Author\footnotemark}
    \footcitetext{author00:_title}
    \switchfootnotesymnum

    Other normal text\footnote{With another normal footnote}

    \switchfootnotenumsym
    \epigraph{We love lions, too}{Author\footnotemark}
    \footcitetext{author00:_title}
    \switchfootnotesymnum

    I hope this is what you need\footnote{Third footnote}

\end{document}