How to Add Captions in Word for a Figure, Equation, or Table?

Adding captions to the figures, charts, tables, equations and other graphical objects in a word document is very important. One, it will help you to manage the figure count automatically. You don’t have to scroll in the document and see the last number you have given to a diagram or table. Second, you will be able to automatically add a Label like Figure, Table, or Equation. Third, these captions can be used to create a Table of Figures, Table of Tables, Table of Equations, and so on. Read along to know how to add captions in word

Steps to Add Captions in Word

1. Open the Insert caption Dialog box

When you want to add a caption you need to click references->Insert Caption from the toolbar.

Figure 1 Caption Dialog Box

2. Select the needed options

Let’s see what we need to understand in this dialog box

• Caption- The information about the object in concern in an explanatory text
• Label- Whether the object to be captioned is Figure, Table, or Equation.
• Position- It lets you define the position of the caption with respect to the object to be captioned.
• Exclude label from Caption- This is the check box that allows you to exclude the words “Figure”, “Table” or “Equation” from the caption. Keep it unchecked if you want the labels.
• New Label- This button when clicked will show the dialog box in figure 2. If you need a new label it can be created. For example, if you have used many flowcharts in your document and you want to create a new label “Flowchart”, you have to type this new label in the Label Textbox and press OK. This dialog box will close and the new Label will appear in the Label dropdown of the Caption dialog box in figure 1.

Figure 2 Adding New label Dialog box

• Delete Label- This button is disabled by default. You will not be able to delete the existing labels. You can delete the labels that you have created using the ‘New Label’ button. All you need to do is select the newly added label and the ‘Delete Label’ Button will be enabled. Click this button and the Label will not be removed from the Label Dropdown.
• Numbering- On pressing this Button you will be able to use the dialog box of figure 3 for defining the format for numbering the captions in the document. You can add the chapter number along with your caption number and select the separator between the chapter number and caption number. Where to get the chapter number from is defined by selecting the heading style used for chapter numbering.

Figure 3 Define Caption Numbering Format

• Auto-caption- this is the facility in Insert Caption so that you don’t have to worry about captions. Word will add them automatically with the objects at the time of insertion according to the setting in this dialog box

Figure 4 Auto-Caption Dialog box

Here you can select the object for which a caption has to be added along with the desired label and positioning

Rounding up

So you see how easy it is to make a professional document by using the facility to add captions in word. Once you use this, you will develop a habit of adding explanatory captions to your reports, proposals, and thesis. Mention your queries in the comment section for any assistance.