Image caption woes in Word 2010
Hello folks,
I have not used Word for technical writing in quite a while and I now encountering some pretty ridiculous issues with attaching captions to images.
Am I wrong? I am pretty sure that I remember in prior versions of Word (pre-2007) allowing image captions to become 'locked' to the image. In other words, if you grabbed and move the image, the caption followed with the image, or attaching a caption meant that the text was placed exactly under (or otherwise arranged) the image.
This is NOT happening with my copy of Word 2010!
1. Right-click, Insert Caption function...
The field "Caption:" will not allow text entry
Since I can't enter anything into that field (it seems locked out), I leave the default for "Label:" as "Figure" and press OK...
2. I now have the text, "Figure", but in large 12pt Times Roman (my default font is 11pt Calibri - Why is it defaulting to Times Roman?
3. The new capture is now placed loosely under the image. I now need to mark it and change its size and font style.
4. If I move the image, the caption stays behind. If I move unrelated text nearby, the caption may also move away from the image. Why can the caption and image be set as attached to each other?
Short of placing all images inside boxes (that would be troublesome), is there anything I can do?
Thank you
I have not used Word for technical writing in quite a while and I now encountering some pretty ridiculous issues with attaching captions to images.
Am I wrong? I am pretty sure that I remember in prior versions of Word (pre-2007) allowing image captions to become 'locked' to the image. In other words, if you grabbed and move the image, the caption followed with the image, or attaching a caption meant that the text was placed exactly under (or otherwise arranged) the image.
This is NOT happening with my copy of Word 2010!
1. Right-click, Insert Caption function...
The field "Caption:" will not allow text entry
Since I can't enter anything into that field (it seems locked out), I leave the default for "Label:" as "Figure" and press OK...
2. I now have the text, "Figure", but in large 12pt Times Roman (my default font is 11pt Calibri - Why is it defaulting to Times Roman?
3. The new capture is now placed loosely under the image. I now need to mark it and change its size and font style.
4. If I move the image, the caption stays behind. If I move unrelated text nearby, the caption may also move away from the image. Why can the caption and image be set as attached to each other?
Short of placing all images inside boxes (that would be troublesome), is there anything I can do?
Thank you
ASKER
Hello Teylyn,
Thanks for your quick reply. I do have the latest updates for Word. I just checked again.
In addition to what I have already mentioned, another oddity is that after I have attached a caption AND then re-select the caption option, I do not see the previously set caption. It is as though Word 'forgot' that I had already set a caption on that particular image.
Strange!
Thanks for your quick reply. I do have the latest updates for Word. I just checked again.
In addition to what I have already mentioned, another oddity is that after I have attached a caption AND then re-select the caption option, I do not see the previously set caption. It is as though Word 'forgot' that I had already set a caption on that particular image.
Strange!
ASKER
Okay, I determined that the inability to enter text into the Caption field had to do with a potential issue with the style information (corrupt??).
Creating a new blank document solved that problem, however, I still have a problem with locking captions to an image. Is this even possible?
For instance (and as mentioned above). If I right-click, select "Insert Caption", type in the caption name. Click OK. The caption appears (still not attached). If I repeat the steps, on the same captioned imaged, and go back into Captions... the Caption title is not shown. It is as if Word 2010 does not understand that I have already assigned a caption.
Furthermore, the caption continues it's count at "1" despite having already assigned more than 1 caption in this document.
Can anyone provide some insight into how to work with Captions?
Creating a new blank document solved that problem, however, I still have a problem with locking captions to an image. Is this even possible?
For instance (and as mentioned above). If I right-click, select "Insert Caption", type in the caption name. Click OK. The caption appears (still not attached). If I repeat the steps, on the same captioned imaged, and go back into Captions... the Caption title is not shown. It is as if Word 2010 does not understand that I have already assigned a caption.
Furthermore, the caption continues it's count at "1" despite having already assigned more than 1 caption in this document.
Can anyone provide some insight into how to work with Captions?
Again, I cannot reproduce that behaviour, sorry. My captions stay put, are numbered and the numbering increments. That's a new document with an out of the box Normal template.
ASKER
Another problem is the distance between the caption and the image. It is, at least, one line of distance.
Q. Where are caption styles edited. Perhaps that is where I should be looking.
Thank you
Q. Where are caption styles edited. Perhaps that is where I should be looking.
Thank you
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Again! Awesome, first rate answers!
You folks saved the day, thank you so much.
BTW, my other problem with text box/smart shape spacing was corrected by going to Style Set and choosing Word 2010 (from whatever it was on). Doing so, corrected the text box spacing problem BUT broke everything else (all other styles). Once I recreated all the styles, I now have a much better behaved document.
Although, I am clearly not nearly as knowledgeable about Word as I previously thought, I can't help but feel that Word is quite troublesome the moment one ventures beyond simple documentation.
Next up...
1. Still need to get my head around automatic TOC generation. What strange voodoo is that?
2. Then... I need to figure out how to format this document into a booklet format. I think Word 2010 has a book flow printing format. At least, it better. :-O
Thanks again all!
You folks saved the day, thank you so much.
BTW, my other problem with text box/smart shape spacing was corrected by going to Style Set and choosing Word 2010 (from whatever it was on). Doing so, corrected the text box spacing problem BUT broke everything else (all other styles). Once I recreated all the styles, I now have a much better behaved document.
Although, I am clearly not nearly as knowledgeable about Word as I previously thought, I can't help but feel that Word is quite troublesome the moment one ventures beyond simple documentation.
Next up...
1. Still need to get my head around automatic TOC generation. What strange voodoo is that?
2. Then... I need to figure out how to format this document into a booklet format. I think Word 2010 has a book flow printing format. At least, it better. :-O
Thanks again all!
I cannot reproduce that behaviour in my copy of Word 2010.
I have an image with text flowing around it. I right-click and select "insert caption". I can change the caption text.
The caption text is placed into a text box, which I can group with the image with a few clicks to select both the image and the text box and then the Group icon on the ribbon.
The caption text style is Calibri, not Times Roman, but in any case, the style can be changed.
Maybe you could try to get the latest updates for Office 2010 and see if that makes a difference.