diff --git a/lib/scripts/script.js b/lib/scripts/script.js
index 58785dbde3aae0829c0b259d71c6ba0f9386901b..8ee3c380529300178eda69ef5a2347190439584a 100644
--- a/lib/scripts/script.js
+++ b/lib/scripts/script.js
@@ -484,20 +484,16 @@ function fnt(id, e, evt) {
         var footnote = new String (a.parentNode.innerHTML);
         
         // strip the leading footnote anchors and their comma separators
-        footnote = footnote.replace(/<a\s*href=\".*\#fnt\d+\".*?<\/a>/gi, '');
+        footnote = footnote.replace(/<a\s.*?href=\".*\#fnt\d+\".*?<\/a>/gi, '');
         footnote = footnote.replace(/^\s+(,\s+)+/,'');
         
         // prefix ids on any elements with "insitu-" to ensure they remain unique
         footnote = footnote.replace(/\bid=\"(.*?)\"/gi,'id="insitu-$1');
-        
-        // create the DOM node, assign an id, a class and the footnote content
-        fnt = document.createElement("div");
-        fnt.id = "insitu-fn"+id;
-        fnt.className = "insitu-footnote";
-        fnt.innerHTML = footnote;
+   	} else {
+        var footnote = new String(fnt.innerHTML);
     }
     
     // activate the tooltip
-    domTT_activate(e, evt, 'content', fnt, 'type', 'velcro');
+    domTT_activate(e, evt, 'content', footnote, 'type', 'velcro', 'id', 'insitu-fn'+id, 'styleClass', 'insitu-footnote', 'maxWidth', document.body.offsetWidth*0.4);
     currentFootnote = id;    
 }
diff --git a/lib/tpl/default/design.css b/lib/tpl/default/design.css
index af79983178102cccd86bd56f5f949ca51828a3ec..48453a736229b36ff37644f1c959e3606bedc620 100644
--- a/lib/tpl/default/design.css
+++ b/lib/tpl/default/design.css
@@ -576,6 +576,12 @@ div.insitu-footnote {
   background: #eef3f8;
   text-align: left;
   padding: 4px;
+  max-width: 40%;    /* IE's width is handled in javascript */  
+}
+
+/* overcome IE issue with one line code or file boxes which require h. scrolling */
+* html .insitu-footnote pre.code, * html .insitu-footnote pre.file {
+  padding-bottom: 18px;
 }
 
 /* --------------- search result formating --------------- */