Footnotes in tables

The standard LaTeX \footnote command doesn't work in tables; the table traps the footnotes and they can't escape to the bottom of the page.

If your table is floating, your best bet is (unfortunately) to put the table in a minipage environment and to put the notes underneath the table, or to use Donald Arseneau's package threeparttable (which implements "table notes" proper).

The ctable package extends the model of threeparttable, and also uses the ideas of the booktabs package. The \ctable command does the complete job of setting the table, placing the caption, and defining the notes. The "table" may consist of diagrams, and a parameter in \ctable's optional argument makes the float that is created a "figure" rather than a "table".

Otherwise, if your table is not floating (it's just a 'tabular' in the middle of some text), there are several things you can do to fix the problem.

The documentation of threeparttable appears in the package file itself; that of ctable is distributed as a PDF file (for convenience's sake).

ctable.sty
macros/latex/contrib/ctable (zip, browse)
footnote.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/contrib/mdwtools (zip, browse)
longtable.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/required/tools (zip, browse)
mdwtab.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/contrib/mdwtools (zip, browse)
threeparttable.sty
macros/latex/contrib/misc/threeparttable.sty
tabularx.sty
Distributed as part of macros/latex/required/tools (zip, browse)

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=footintab