Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Captions

Captions are labels that identify illustrations, tables, equations created by Microsoft Equation Editor, and other objects by number (see Figure 7-21).

Most people type in captions manually, but Word’s captioning feature has huge advantages over the manual method: It can number, renumber, and even insert captions automatically. Letting Word handle the captions not only saves you time, but could potentially save you from repeating a caption number or leaving out a caption entirely.

Inserting Captions

To caption an item—table, picture, text box, or some other object—first select it, then choose Insert → Caption. Instead of typing a caption, you build it using the Caption dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-21, top.

• Caption, Label. You can’t directly edit the words in the Caption box (such as “Figure”), which is how the caption will appear in the document. Instead, this box reflects whatever you select from the Label pop-up menu. If none of the three labels provided (Figure, Equation, Table) strikes your fancy, click New Label and type your own— Illustration or Chart, for instance—and hit Return.

• Position. This pop-up menu lets you choose one of the two most popular places for the location of your caption: above or below the captioned item.

• Numbering. Word numbers your captions automatically; this feature, after all, is the whole point of the exercise. Use the Numbering dialog box, as shown in Figure 7-21, middle, to choose a number format (Roman numerals or whatever).

  If you choose ...