Frames, Captions, and Graphic Placement

C

Colin Higbie

I understand that the default way Word inserts captions and references makes
them unsearchable, unable to be autoreferenced (in a TOC or index), and
inaccessible to the Update Field command (a real pain if the numbers end up
off for any reason). I'm using Word 2003 with all the latest patches on
Windows XP w/SP2.

I have been converting all my caption text boxes to frames, as recommended.
It does seem to address these problems. I hope this is the right thing to
do?

My main question: Assuming that's correct (that I should be using frames for
captions instead of the default text boxes), is there any way to get Word to
insert Captions automatically in frames instead of text boxes?

I have dozens of figures and tables and still need to insert dozens more. I
number each like: Table CH#-TBL# (e.g. Table 10-3, would be the third table
in Chapter 10). The document so far is about 150 pages. I really don't want
to have to insert every caption manually, then re-select the text box, go
into the properties, and convert it to a frame. There must be an easier
way... right?

Related question: regardless of how a I get my captions to be frames, should
I then put the associated graphic (all the figures and tables are actually
graphics) inside the frame with the caption, or can I just leave that loose
as a pasted picture, each anchored to a nearby paragraph? If it makes any
difference, the vast majority of these graphics are paste-linked to another
file so they can be edited easily.

Some of the graphics I want to appear at specific places on the page (it
seems to work well for those to specify a position relative to the page),
but most I want to flow with the text (these seem to be more troublesome).

Any advice here would be very helpful. I'm quite frustrated with Word
bouncing my graphics to the edges of the page or other pages, breaking
widow-orphan settings, etc.

Thanks,
Colin
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

You might try a different approach instead. Word inserts a caption in a text
box only if the object you're captioning is wrapped (not In Line With Text).
If the graphic is inline, Word puts the caption in an ordinary text
paragraph.

You can insert your graphic inline, add the caption (in a separate
paragraph, so that each paragraph can have its own style), then select both
graphic and caption together and insert a frame (using the Insert Frame
button on the Forms toolbar or the Frame command that you add back to the
Insert menu). The graphic and caption will then stay together, and you have
many of the same wrapping and positioning options you have with a text box
or wrapped object. You can't put a frame in front of or behind text, but
usually you won't be wanting to do this for a figure or table, anyway.

Whenever possible, just leave the graphics inline (this is especially
appropriate for Tables, which can be broken across pages). Format your
graphic paragraph style as "Keep with next" (assuming the caption is below
it), and the graphic and caption will stay together (if the caption is above
the table/figure, then set the caption style as "Keep with next").

--
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.
 
C

Colin Higbie

Thanks, I'm in the process of trying the inline option and it does seem to
help. I see it maintains the benefit of frames of keeping the captions
available for referencing and performing field updates. I recall that I had
decided at one point to change the default paste behavior to Top and Bottom
instead of Inline. I think I did that to keep the picture always separated
from the text. But if it's creating more problems than it's solving, I'll
revert back to the inline default.

Related question: should I use frames at all in this case? I practically
turn red and want to throw my computer out a window when I drag around a
text or graphics box and Word magically throws it onto another page or just
refuses to move it, or disappears it altogether. I haven't yet observed if
frames are immune to this behavior, but I think I've seen some indication
that they can also cause those horrible problems (let's just admit that
they're bugs).

If they do bounce around like that, I'd rather just keep everything inline
and loose, except for those few cases where I need to position the graphic
in a fixed fashion relative to the page, rather than a paragraph.

Of all the problems I have with Word, the inability to control placement is
by far the worst to me (especially coming from WordPerfect, which just plain
works - this is easily enough to drive me back to WordPerfect and forgo the
compatibility benefits of Word, and let's face it, that's about the only
reason to prefer Word to WordPerfect). It seems this has been an ongoing bug
since at least Word 97, the last time I used Word and dumped it in
frustration for WordPerfect (at that time over Word's inability to do any
advanced controls over data in a mail-merge). Do you know if this is
something MS is even trying to fix? I truly don't understand how this can be
considered acceptable behavior in a mainstream application.

- Colin
 
C

Colin Higbie

Aha, in changing one of my graphics back to inline, I remembered what the
problem was. But I'll bet there is another solution (I hope).

If the picture is wider than the margins (for a full bleed graphic or just
one that's larger than the margins would allow), Word lines it up with the
left margin and then lets the right edge fall off the page. I want to center
the image. How can I do this when it's inline and wider than the margins?

Thanks,
Colin
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Yes. You can give the paragraph negative indents as needed. Or you can put
the graphic in a single borderless table cell. In most cases tables are not
required to conform to the margins, and you can set their position as
Center. There's a Compatibility Option in Word 2003 for "Allow tables to
extend into margins" (which is off by default), but I believe this is the
default for previous versions.

--
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.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

My general rule is to keep everything inline unless there's a compelling
reason to use a frame or text box and then to prefer a frame over a text box
when possible. Floating graphics, of course, need neither frame nor text
box, and putting one in a frame by itself can make it difficult to select
and format the frame and graphic separately.

--
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.
 
C

Colin Higbie

In between my posting and seeing your suggestion, I decided to create a
Style, "Graphics and Tables", which extends the outer margins by an inch and
then centers everything. I now put all my wide graphics and tables and their
captions in that style.

The downside is that captions now appear centered under the image, instead
of left-aligned with it. I can live with that - this only has to be good
enough to go to an editor, but is there a way to center the graphic, then
automatically left align text with the wherever the left edge of the
centered graphic ends up? I think no, and to be fair, that would be asking a
lot of a word processor, but if you know of a way, I'd love to use it.

Thanks,
Colin
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I don't know of a way to do what you want short of putting the graphic and
caption in a frame together and centering the frame, but then you're back
where you started. If graphics are going to be variously aligned on the
page, it's probably better that the captions also be centered, but that
doesn't always work very well with run-in captions. What you might consider,
however, is something like this:

Table 1/Figure 1
Title of Table/Figure

instead of

Table 1/Figure 1. Title of table/figure

using a line break at the end of the table/figure number.

I would also suggest that, if this is manuscript to be typeset into a book,
you should definitely consult with the publisher about the desired format.
I'm sure much has changed since the last time I typed such a manuscript, but
at that time the publishers wanted all figures and tables separately (even
in separate files), with callouts indicating their approximate placement,
such as

[Insert Figure 1 about here]

--
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.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top