Please do not automatically superscript asterisks in footnotes. .

[PHSteph]

The keyboard symbol "asterisk" is created to appear superscripted. The
footnote function puts it even higher up, which makes it almost invisible.
This mistake occurs in both the footnote itself and in the text. It was a
defect in earlier versions of Word as well. It takes a half dozen keystrokes
to fix it. I wish Microsoft would correct this error.
PHSteph

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I agree that this is annoying, but the asterisk and other footnote reference
marks use the Footnote Reference style. If you are using the asterisk,
dagger, double dagger series of marks in a specific document, merely modify
the Footnote Reference style not to be superscripted. For isolated
instances, select the mark and press Ctrl+Spacebar to remove the Footnote
Reference character style.