Captions - Automatically insert character after numbered label?

[wildetudor]

Hello there,

I have many images in my document which need captioning, and I would like to
be able to automate an operation which up until now I have had to do
manually: insert a punctuation mark after the text that is automatically
added by word (i.e. label and number).

So I would like, for instance, when I add a new caption, the automatic text
to not just be "Figure 1", but have a colon and a space added after it -
"Figure 1: ".

I know you can customise labels, and also the way the numbering is done, but
I haven't found a way of customising what comes after. Perhaps it can be done
using a macro (which I have very little knowledge of)?

Thanks for any help.

 

[finalword]

You could setup an Outline numbering scheme to do this. I would suggest
using the Heading styles, since the styles are already available in Word, but
you can use any style you create.

Point to Heading 1 and choose Modify
Select Format button at the bottom
Select Numbering
Click the Outline Numbering Tab
Select one of the numbering boxes and then Click Custom
Make sure Level 1 is selected
Add your text before the number and after the number
Change the number type
Click the MORE button
Set the Follow number with to a Space
Set Link to Style to Heading 1 (or your style)
Ok your way out of the box

You can apply it by styling the blank line below your picture as Heading 1

 

[wildetudor]

Hi, thanks for your suggestion. However, this is not quite what I had in
mind. I would like my captions to be regular Word captions (so they appear in
the cross-references list under Captions), rather than normal text formatted
with a custom style.

While I'm on the topic, there's also another issue I have with captions:
whenever I format the alignment of a picture to be Square (which works best
for me most of the time), captions get inserted as text boxes, which are a
whole other type of object, not to mention more awkward to manipulate than a
regular caption. Therefore at the moment, I have to format my pictures'
alignment as In Line With Text, so as to not trigger this behaviour.

 

[finalword]

I was able to type a colon after the number and have it appear in the
document, though any extra spaces seem to be removed.

As far as the caption appearing in a text box when you chose Square. That
makes sense. The graphic is floating at that point and in order to have the
caption follow it the caption would need to float as well, so they put it in
a text box. I always recommend placing Graphics In Line With Text. You have
a bit more fine control this way and can always place the graphic in a table
if you need the text to wrap to one side or another.

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?d2lsZGV0dWRvcg==?=,

While I'm on the topic, there's also another issue I have with captions:
whenever I format the alignment of a picture to be Square (which works best
for me most of the time), captions get inserted as text boxes, which are a
whole other type of object, not to mention more awkward to manipulate than a
regular caption. Therefore at the moment, I have to format my pictures'
alignment as In Line With Text, so as to not trigger this behaviour.

The standard way to work around this is to insert an old-style FRAME. Insert
the picture (in-line with the text) into the Frame. Position the IP just to the
right of the picture, press ENTER. Now you can enter a caption on the line
below the picture - and everything moves together.

The Insert Frame command is in the Forms toolbar.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

I don't have a direct solution for your problem, but perhaps this will help.
Use insert caption to insert your first caption label and number. Once
inserted, format the label, number field, punctuation and following space as
you prefer. Then copy everything up to the first letter of the caption text,
and paste it at the beginning of every caption thereafter. Update the number
fields (Ctrl+A, F9 or switch to Normal view and back to print layout if
using W2003).

This saves considerable time because you do not have to go in and out of the
menu. I generally work with documents that are already written with the
captions or places for captions (but not the auto numbering) already
inserted. But if you are the writer, you could enter the caption text and
style as you go and when the writing is done, enter the numbers.

HTH,
PamC

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can also save such a caption as an AutoText entry.

 

[wildetudor]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

You can also save such a caption as an AutoText entry.