Creating a Table of Figures

[Guest]

I have a doucment that I need to create a table of figures and tables. I go
to the first fugure and highlight the text I want to be part of my table and
I go to Insert, Reference, Caption when I go OK Word creates a text that says
Figure 1 underneath what I highlighted I want the text I highlighted to be
Figure 1 because it already has the heading "Figure S.1.1 Mechanism of
Action" How do I get Word to use what I highlight to be the caption for my
Tables of Figures. Also can you have figures and tables in the Table of
Figures. If I select "Figure for the figure and Table for the Table will it
create to separate tables. One of figures and one of tables. I am using Word
2003.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dee

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you want Word to pick up captions automatically for a Table of Figures or
List of Tables, you need to create the captions the way Word wants to. So
select the caption text you've already typed (excluding the Figure number),
copy it, and paste into the Caption dialog after the label Word inserts.
Then delete the caption you had already typed.

My guess is you may not be able to get Word to create exactly the type of
figure numbering you are using ("Figure S.1.1"), so you might be better off
using a specific style or styles for the figure captions and table titles.
Then create an ordinary TOC that will pick up this style or styles. This
might be a better solution, anyway, since Word by default does not combine
figure and table captions in the same Table of Figures, so you would
probably have to use a TOC anyway.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Hi Suzanne-

THIS IS NOT A SUGGESTION to the user, but the post intrigued me and I'd like
to get your impressions on what I discovered while playing around;

1) If you type a caption in and leave your insertion point at the beginning
or end of it (don't select it), when you insert the caption specify what type
frm the list (Table, Figure, etc.) but put a check in the box for Exclude
Label from Caption. Your typed caption will be reformatted accordingly and it
will be assigned a sequential number as usual. That number field is inserted
in the doc, but it can be deleted witout a problem. The Table/Figure will
still be associated with the correct number when the TOF is generated. (I
don't know that this is a 'better' way than typing/pasting into the dialog
box, but it is an additional option.)

2) Word (at least 2003) will include both Tables & Figures in the same TOF
if you choose 'None' from the Caption Label list in the Index and Tables
dialog box, then click Options... and check the box for Style (set to
Caption).

I'd be interested in your results when you have a chance to check this out.

Best Regards |:>)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, wrt (2) I should have said that "by default" the TOF doesn't include
both figures and tables. What I was getting at was that if you base it on a
style, you can select only one style. If both figure captions and table
titles are in the Caption style, then this will work, but some people want
them formatted differently and so would use different styles, which then
makes it easier to use a regular TOC.

I'm not sure I follow what you said in (1), but it certainly sounds
intriguing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanx for the reply.

I guess I didn't consider the separate styles idea since I normally prefer
to have the TOF entries formatted alike. If I want the tables & figures
captioned differently in the doc I generally change one or the other _after_
generating the TOF... But that's just me.

Re (1), that was directed to the OP's point about having already typed the
captions she wanted to use. She was selecting the typed text and "Figure 1"
was being inserted below the "Figure S.1.1" content she had selected.

What I found is that all she needed to do was place the insertion point at
the beginning of the typed text she wanted to use as a caption. Then,
Insert>Reference>Caption as usual, but check the box 'Exclude Label from
Caption'. That applies the Caption Style to the existing text.

However, it also inserts the sequential number of the table/figure. In other
words, checking the box only removes the word Table or Figure, not the
number, and you can't delete the number in the dialog box. So in this case
she would wind up with

1Figure S.1.1

My only point here is that those numbers can be removed without causing the
entries to be omitted when the TOF is generated (because their inclusion is
based on the Caption Style formatting, not the numbering). Also, the entries
will be in the correct sequence in the TOF because of the order they appear
in the doc.

Does that make more sense?

Regards |:>)

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

But in the case you describe, why not just apply the Caption style to the
text via the style menu and skip the whole Insert | Caption dialog?

I think the main reason to use Insert | Caption is not generating a TOF or
TOT, but being able to get all the numbers and cross-references to update
when you add a new table, and being able to create cross-references at all.
The OP was already wasting that feature by typing the number, no? And
didn't seem interested in cross-references...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, I think so, though I think I'd still be inclined to start more or less
from scratch with a solution.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Agreed.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.