Graduate School

Captions for figures and tables - Word 2003

The Graduate School requires that you have a caption for each table and figure in your ETDR. The ETDR template is configured to automatically create a list of figures and list of tables, also required by the Graduate School, from the text of your captions. Follow these steps to insert captions:

  1. Click on the figure or table where you want the caption to appear.
  2. On the Insert menu, point to Reference and then click Caption.
  3. In the Label list, select Figure or Table, as appropriate.
  4. In the Position menu, select where you want the caption to appear.
  5. Click the Numbering button.
  6. In the Format menu, select 1,2,3…
  7. If you want to include the chapter number in the table/figure caption number, check the Include chapter number box. If you select this option, two more options will appear:
    1. In the Heading starts with style: box, select Heading 1.
    2. In the Use separator box, select the punctuation you want to appear between the chapter number and the figure/table number.
    3. Click OK.
  8. If the caption label/number looks like you want, click OK.
  9. The caption label will appear above/below the table or figure. To add text to the caption, click after the table/figure number and enter your text.

Notice that the figure/table number appears with a gray background. This background is called “field shading” and indicates that a script or code has generated the number. It’s important NOT to edit these numbers! The figure/table number will automatically update as you insert additional captions.

Figure and table captions in appendices

For table and figure captions that appear in an appendix, the Graduate School requires that the appendix letter must be the first element in the caption label. For example:


Table A.1. Elements of data

See the Appendices page for instructions on how to adjust captions to meet this requirement.

To change caption line spacing

If you want to change the line spacing in your captions, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure the Task Pane is visible. If not, see the “Basic Configuration” on the Styles page (link).
  2. Make sure Styles and Formatting is displayed at the top of the Task Pane. If not, click the down arrow at the top of the Task Pane and click Styles and Formatting.
  3. At the bottom of the Task Pane, click the down arrow next to Show: and click Custom. The Format Settings dialog box will open.
  4. In the menu under Category:, click All styles.
  5. Under Styles to be visible, make sure Caption is checked.
  6. Click OK. The Format Settings dialog box will close.
  7. In the Task Pane, scroll till you find the entry for Caption.
  8. Point to Caption; a down arrow will appear. Pull down the menu. Click Modify. The Modify Style dialog box will open.
  9. Click the icon for the desired line spacing.
  10. Click OK.

This will change the line spacing for all figure and table captions in your document.

Long captions

In the case of very long captions, you may want the entire caption to appear with the figure or table, but only a portion of the caption to appear in the list of tables or figures. It is possible to do this, but depends on the line spacing of your caption and a few other parameters. Contact the IT Helpdesk for assistance.