UNHCE Information Technology & Distance Education Blog

When you need to illustrate a point that words alone can't convey, pictures and tables can be a perfect complement to your document. However, pictures and tables can't always speak on their own; sometimes you'll need to discuss and refer to them within your document's text as well. When you use graphic objects to support your document text, it's a good idea to number them so they're easier to refer to as you write. You can easily number your document's graphic objects using Word's Captions feature. To apply a caption to a graphic object, first select the object to which you'd like to add the caption. Next, choose Insert | Reference | Caption from the menu bar to open the Caption dialog box. Choose an appropriate label option from the Label dropdown list. (Note: As an alternative, you can click New Label to create a new label option. You can also modify your caption's numbering scheme by clicking Numbering and modifying the settings in the Caption Numbering dialog box.) Click OK when you're ready to apply the caption.

As an alternative, you can automatically add numbered captions to each graphic object you insert in your document. To do so, choose Insert | Reference | Caption from the menu bar to open the Caption dialog box. Click the AutoCaption button and, in the AutoCaption dialog box, select the check boxes for the object types to which you'd like to add captions. Using the settings in the Options panel, specify the label, position, and numbering you'd like to use, as applicable, and then click OK to close the AutoCaption dialog box. The next time you insert an object that you've configured to use captions, Word automatically adds one according to your specifications. This feature remains as you set it until you make changes.