Hi Andy:
OK, to add information to what I already posted, let's run through those
options, since you have found them now
1) All objects other that text must have something to locate them. This
can be either a paragraph or an anchor to a paragraph.
2) When you set "Inline with text" the object (which is anything except
text: picture, graph, spreadsheet, whatever...) is located by the paragraph
that contains it. It is treated like a very large character in that
paragraph.
3) As soon as you select anything BUT "Inline with text" the object is
located by an ANCHOR.
4) The anchor MUST be attached to a paragraph. The paragraph can be in the
text or in a header, footer, or even a note, but it must exist.
5) When you set an absolute position, you locate the top left corner of the
object with respect to the top left corner of the paragraph to which it is
anchored. Positive dimensions place the picture above or to the right,
negative dimensions place it below or to the left.
6) When you set a "relative" position (e.g. Top or Bottom....) you are in
fact positioning the object relative to the Page or Margin that currently
contains the paragraph that contains the anchor. And this is where things
can go a little pear-shaped...
If the paragraph containing the anchor changes pages, Word will recompute
the position of the picture relative to the page or margin that now contains
the paragraph.
If you have positive offset numbers, this can result in the picture going
off the top of the next page. If you have negative offsets, the picture can
end up below the previous page when the paragraph moves backwards.
This is not an easy thing to understand, and because it's a Word Processor
that is trying to do this, it doesn;t work very well. That's because the
position of a paragraph in a word processor document is by definition
unstable, and the pages flow as they please.
Move object with Text is designed to slow this down a bit. If it is
checked, the object moves with the paragraph it is anchored to (the offsets
are fixed, the picture moves when the paragraph does). If it is unchecked,
the offsets are recomputed to keep the picture in the same position,
PROVIDED that the paragraph does not change page. If the paragraph DOES
change page, Word is supposed to recompute the offsets so that the picture
remains ON the page, but that does not take the page margins into account.
Lock Anchor keeps the anchor always attached to the same paragraph,
regardless of where you drag the picture. This produces some alarming
results if you drag the picture into a position that cannot be honoured when
the paragraph moves. If Lock Anchor is not checked, when you drag the
picture beyond the paragraph it is currently anchored to, the anchor will
move to the closest paragraph in the direction you dragged.
Allow Overlap determines whether the text is allowed to overlap the picture
or not. It makes sense only if the wrapping style is set to a style that
allows the picture to share the same horizontal space as the text: if you
wrap top and bottom, you can't have an overlap.
Technique A
__________
Adding captions is affected by what the picture is doing. Normally, you
would add a caption to an inline picture. When you do, the caption would be
placed on a paragraph before or after the paragraph containing the graphic.
You would then assign the paragraph properties Keep With NExt and Keep Lines
Together to ensure the picture and its caption remained on the same page as
each other.
However, if the picture is floating (anything but Inline with Text) then you
have to ensure that your caption is too. The normal way to do that is to
select the floating graphic, then use Insert>Caption. When you do, Word
creates a floating text box (text boxes must always be floating, but design)
to contain the caption. You can then drag the caption into your desired
position with respect to the graphic. When you have, you select both the
picture and its caption text box and use GROUP from the Draw toolbar to fix
the relationship between the picture and its graphic. If you forget to do
that, your picture and graphic will inevitably end up on different pages.
Now, if you then introduce footnotes into the puzzle, you effectively have a
floating bottom margin. The complexity of doing page layout in a Word
Processor is huge, because a WP will always flow the text, you cannot stop
it, so the paragraphs will all move around, causing disconcerting effects on
your graphics.
Technique B
__________
For you, I recommend an advanced technique called a "Word Picture". Use
Insert>Object>Microsoft Word Picture. This produces a new window with a
little square drawing area in it. It's actually a separate document that is
embedded in the main document. A little floating toolbar appears: don't
lose it, you will need it!
1) Insert>Object>Microsoft Word Picture
2) Paste your picture into the new window.
3) Type a blank paragraph for your caption and then type your caption.
4) Position your picture
5) Position your caption
6) Now click the # button on the little floating toolbar. This adjusts the
picture Bounding Box to exactly contain the arrangement.
7) Now close the new Window and save. Your picture will appear in the
document as an inline element. Use the paragraph properties to adjust its
horizontal position. You now have a picture and its caption created as a
single object and locked inline with text. They can never be separated, and
will dutifully move forwards or backwards onto new pages as the text
changes.
Note that there are two drawbacks to this technique: Anything in a Word
Picture is not in the text layer of the document, it is in the "Drawing"
layer. This means: a) The caption number will not update automatically, you
must type it; and b) the caption itself is invisible to the List of Figures
generator. If you need automatically numbered captions or a list of
figures, you have to use Technique A. Otherwise, most professionals use
Technique B because it's more reliable.
Hope this helps
This responds to microsoft.public.mac.office.word on 13 Jul 2003 06:21:08
-0700, (e-mail address removed) (Andy):
I seem to be on the way to answering my own question! If I go to
Picture Format > Advanced and change "In line with text" to "Top and
Bottom" then fix the alignment to be centered at the top relative to
the margin, I mostly get more or less what I want. It still seems a
bit fickle, though -- doubtless complicated by the fact that I have
footnotes climbing up from the bottom so page layout is already an
issue -- and exactly what "Move object with text", "Lock anchor"
(what's the difference?!) and "Allow overlap" do is lost on me,
although experience shows that they obviously _do_ matter! Adding
captions seems to complicate matters (I can't add them to floating
graphics?); and _something_ I do sends it off on a wild repagination
exercise when it suddenly decides that my modest paper has several
thousand pages (I always stop it -- perhaps it would go forever...).
Any clues anyone?
Thanks in advance, Andy
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John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
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