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Captions

Often you will find that your book comes with captions.

All captions will have to be reinserted to ensure proper formatting.

Inserting Captions

To insert a caption:

  1. Copy the text for the caption
  2. Right click on the image
  3. Select Insert Caption
  4. Keep the default position as "below selected item"
  5. Remove the label (i.e. Figure, Equation, Photo) by selecting Exclude Label from Caption
  6. Type or copy and paste the book's caption in the caption field
  7. Click OK

When you select Exclude Label from Caption the number will remain. This will have to be removed manually after insertion.
For tables, the caption should be above the table. For more info please go to the Tables section for more on captions for tables

If you have Word for Office 365, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, or Word 2007 here are some alternative instructions on how to insert captions.

Reformatting Caption Style

Once you have successfully inserted your caption you will have to modify the style.

To Modify Caption Style:

  1. In the Style Pane go to the Captions Style
  2. Position you mouse over the Captions Style
    1. This will reveal a small black arrow
    2. Click the Arrow to open up the Drop Menu
  3. Select Modify Style …
  4. This will open up a popup menu called 'Modify Style'
  5. Change the following:
    1. The font to Arial 12
    2. Remove Italic
    3. Select Automatic for color
    4. Select Automatically Update

After you have modified the style it should stay that way for the rest of your editing. Click here for a video on How to Insert Captions in Word.

Sometimes, after you add a caption, you may need to clear formatting from the image once again. Look out for a black dot appearing beside the image; if it appears, select the image and then select Clear Formatting from the Style Pane.
Sometimes the text will be too long to fully copy when you insert the new caption. In this case, after you insert the caption and have modified the style you can copy and paste, or type, the remaining text that did not copy the first time. It should automatically match the style.
A Caption should never be more than one paragraph long.

Odd Formatting Issues

Sometimes you will come across a book that has odd formatting. In these cases you still have to ensure the captions are reinserted appropriately. Below are two examples off odd formatting. If you come across any other examples please add them below.

Captions Linked to Another Section

Sometimes you may get a book that has formatted the captions as links to another section of the book.

An example of this would be Vimy: the Battle and the Legend.

Some of the images had the caption 'Credit #' that originally linked to a Credits Section in the eBook.

After the basic edits for the eText the captions appeared as follows:

In this case we used the credits found in the Credits Section at the back of the book and used that text as the caption in the Etext.

Once Completed the captions in the Etext appeared as follows:

We then deleted the Credits Section.

Long Captions that look like eText Paragraphs

When the captions are longer than the standard they can sometimes look like paragraphs in your edited etext. Use the eBook as a point of reference to ensure you select the correct text to insert in the caption.

An example of this would be On Food and Cooking

After the basic formatting was done for the Etext the captions looked like this:

In the eBook version the caption appeared in Italic text.

In this case you have to select the entire paragraph and insert it as you would any other caption. This example the caption was longer than the maximum word count for the Insert Caption option so it was also necessary to copy and paste the missing text after inserting and modifying the caption.

If you have any questions, check the archive below, if still not clear, post your question on the Production Q&A

Q&A Archive

Q: Okay this is so crazy. I know I'm not supposed to edit the book. But is there any way to let the publisher know? I am working on Iconic Stories from 150 Years of Sport, and on page 214 while writing alt-text and reading the captions, I noticed that the captions were wrong for each image after the first. I went to the original book to see if I mixed them up somehow, and I didn't! The last caption for that set of photos should be the second caption, and all other captions should be for the photo below it (idk if that made sense). Is this just basically out of our hands? It just won't make sense, when the ereader reads the caption, it won't match up with the alt-text. It'll be pretty jarring for several images!

A: That is not good for anyone! As this is a special project for a publisher, we can directly contact them. I am in the process of getting in touch with the publisher to see how they wish us to proceed. I will keep you posted.

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public/nnels/etext/captions.txt · Last modified: 2022/09/15 12:03 by rachel.osolen