I use the multicols environment (multicol package).
I have two columns.
If I simply use \footnote{the footnote text, which is quite long}
the footnote behaves as if there was just one big column (as in a "normal document").
It seems that there is no regular way to obtain a footnote which only spans one of my two columns.
But I guess there is a workaround like there is e.g. [1] for placing floating objects inside the multicol environment.
I would be grateful for any hint.
[1]
http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/multicol_hint.html
Best Answer
The workaround you pointed to for single-column floats is a very crude one - the new environments simply don't float, which will almost invariably lead to bad column breaks without manual intervention. Footnotes are a kind of special floats, and an equivalent "workaround" would be to place text formatted akin to footnotes at the bottom of the affected columns by hand (and to determine column breaks by hand).
Quoting from p. 12 of the multicol documentation:
So I'm afraid there's no workaround for your problem.