A caption is a field label that you can affix to portions of text and other items, such as pictures, fields and tables, that you may have inserted into your document. Each caption consists of a caption name and a number (or letter). Ability allows you to use a variety of caption types and to create your own when you need to. This is useful in that you may want to give different types of item in your document different types of caption. Moreover, the caption command guarantees that you can maintain an incremental order for the various caption types you use.
To insert a caption, follow these steps:
Select Caption from the Insert menu. The "Caption" dialog is opened.
In the Label box click on the arrow to see the available caption types: Caption, Table, Picture, Label. As you would expect, Picture and Table naturally go with inserted pictures and tables.
In the Numbering box leave Continuous selected if you want the caption number to increase by 1 from the previous caption of the same type. If you want a caption to start at a chosen value then select Start at and enter the number in the accompanying box.
Select a number or letter format in the Number Format box.
Click on OK to close the dialog and insert the caption.
There are certain simple rules for how caption numbering works. If, say, you choose the Caption label, with Continuous numbering and number format 1, 2, 3, …, then the first few captions will be Caption 1, Caption 2, Caption 3, … You can then force the next caption to start at 1 (or any other number for that matter) and the following captions will proceed continuously from this new caption number until you choose to start again.
Likewise if you switch from one label to another, for example, Table, the numbering will start again for that label. When you go back to the original label, for example, Caption, the numbering will continue in line with how you left it before switching to Table (unless, of course, you force the numbering to start again).
Along the right side of the "Caption" dialog there are buttons for adding and deleting label types.
To add a label follow these steps:
Click on Add Label to display the "Insert Label" dialog.
Type in the name of the new label and then click on OK.
The new label name will be included in those displayed in the drop-down list in the Labels box.
To delete a label:
Select the label you wish to delete from the Label box.
Click on Delete Label.
In the "Delete Label" dialog you will be asked if you want to go ahead with the deletion. Click on Yes to delete the label.
The Caption command also enables you to set up an Auto Caption (see Auto captions).
See also: