Q. Hi—I am editing an engineering book where the author has used figures in footnotes. I have gone through your suggestion on numbering figures appearing in a preface to a book as figure P.1. Can we number figures in footnotes as figure FN1.1 (for chapter 1)? The same question arises for figures in problems (P1.1 for the first figure in problems in chapter 1).
A. Unless you have several figures in a footnote, it would be simplest to leave the figure unnumbered and refer instead to the note number (chap. 1, n. 3). If you have more than one figure in a note, you could label them A, B, etc. (chap. 1, n. 3, fig. B), starting over at A for each note. If your problems set is a separate section at the end of the chapter, there is no need for special numbering; just continue with that chapter’s numbering. If the problems are interspersed and set off from the text somehow (with frames or shading), their figures can remain unnumbered or be labeled A, B, and so forth, and references can be to the problem number (chap. 1, prob. 3, fig. A).