Today we dive into the murky waters of formatting documents in Microsoft Word. To be specific, we’re looking at using custom caption styles and numbering. Any questions?
That is a reasonable question. It’s simply a case of what you want your captions to do. The automatic captions in Microsoft Word are fine for most things. But if you want a specific numbering system or style in an essay, you might need more control.
If you have a lot of spare time, you could change each caption manually. But a more sensible option is changing the ‘Caption’ style via the ‘Styles’ menu. In Word 2007 and later:
Modifying caption styles.
This will automatically update all captions in your document, as well as setting the style of any new captions. In Word for Mac, the same options can be accessed via the ‘Format’ menu.
To create a caption style from scratch, you need to:
Creating a new style.
Awesome.
You can now apply this style to existing caption or use it to create new ones. This is especially handy if you want to use more than one caption style in a document.
Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.
You can control the basics of caption numbering via the ‘Numbering’ option when adding a caption in Word (e.g. using Roman numerals or adding a chapter number).
But you can also select a caption style and type freely. This bypasses the need to add a label to a caption (e.g. ‘Figure’ or ‘Table’), unlike when you insert a standard caption.
If you then want to list these custom captions at the beginning of your document, you need to:
Listing custom caption styles.
This creates a list based on the style rather than caption labels. And if you use different caption styles for different caption types, you can even create separate lists for different kinds of image or table. Which is nice.
Δ
3-minute read
Google Docs is a powerful collaborative tool, and mastering its features can significantly enhance your...
2-minute read
If you’re writing about health issues, you might need to reference the Centers for Disease...
5-minute read
Introduction If you’re involved with ecommerce, you’re likely familiar with the often painstaking process of...
Are you interested in learning more about the role of a content editor and the...
4-minute read
Proofreading is important to ensure your writing is clear and concise for your readers. Whether...
Creating presentations can be time-consuming and frustrating. Trying to construct a visually appealing and informative...