I would recommend you try OpenOffice.
http://www.openoffice.org/It is great.
RefWorks (
http://www.refworks.com/) Is great for reference, and it supports importing into MS Office and Open Office. A quick glance of the site, I did not see where to get a free Student subscription. Maybe I had to get it through my schools library page first, or something, so you might check the same.
Is is absolutely great for References, and it supports importation of reference from many online journals and programs like SciFinder.
StarOffice is based of off OpenOffice, but OpenOffice is updated more often. And I know how to use it
And yes, even though Sun Micro is now branded on OpenOffice, they are not quite the same.
If you are inserting them manually with OpenOffice, you can just type in the number or symbol you want.
Or, you can hit F11 or go to the Format Menu/ Styles and Formatting.
And then at FootNote right click and have fun.
*edit* Also, with RefWorks, you can just select your journal style and it has the proper formating for citation and such!