Figure Caption

[NoExpert]

I am writing text with figures and do not find a simple way of putting figure
captions, i.e. "Fig. 1. The top panel shows...". I am now putting a text
box within the drawing canvas and under the "picture" in the figure. But
there must be a better way. In WordPerfect (dare I say that name...) one
right clicks on the figure and the options "Create caption" or "Edit Caption"
appear. And there is even a helpful self-numbering facility. How to do it
in Word?

 

[Carol]

In Word 2003 - Insert | Reference | Caption.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

 

[NoExpert]

Carol, thanks. The method works but not very well. If I select first the
drawing canvas and then insert caption, the caption appears correctly scaled
to the width of the canvas, but about one inch below the canvas, not
particularly associated with it. And it does not naturally go into the
canvas (I have to make the canvas longer, and fool around a lot). Perhaps
there is a more efficient way. but thanks again.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Are you drawing the figures in Word?

I see you heading for a problem--captions are text, and anything on the
drawing canvas sounds like a floating image, and never the twain shall meet
in Word. If you are writing "text with figures", it's not clear why you
want floating images anyhow.

I suspect it would be better if your images were in-line with text, so that
Word treated them more or less as a paragraph, and then the caption was the
next paragraph. I'm not very familiar with graphics in Word myself, but see
this article, so that you know why using floating images may not be the best
idea:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/DrwGrphcs/DrawLayer.htm

Others may come along with advice more specific to what you are trying to
do.

 

[Carol]

I publish a monthly newsletter with screen shots throughout and do NOT use
the drawing canvas at all and the captions work very well for me. I never
have a problem with it.

 

[NoExpert]

You were both right. If I forget about the Drawing Canvas and just insert a
picture (which can be any graphic object), then I select it and insert
caption, it works wonderfully.
Dalya and Carol, you made my day!

 

[NoExpert]

OK, after reading the article you recommended, I could do something as good
as WordPerfect. With the cursor in your preferred spot, click "Insert Frame"
from the "Forms" toolbar (why is it not in the "Insert" menu!!). You can
then draw with the cursor a frame of any size. Then insert in it the picture
(it will auto-scale to the frame size). Then select the picture, Insert|
Reference|Caption. Voila!, the caption will be inside the frame, under the
picture, and will move and resize with the frame.
Thanks again.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can restore the Frames command to the Insert menu using Tools |
Customize.