Using Insert Caption dialog box

[jsallen]

Instructions are simple enough: select the item to caption, then click "Insert Caption" in the References menu to open the Captions dialog box. I can change the label, etc. but no cursor appears in the "Caption:" line near the top of that box, and I can't type in it. What to do? I want to create captions, so I can in turn create a table of figures to go with the table of contents. I'm using Word 2010.

[PamCaswell]

For me, clicking anywhere in the caption box causes the cursor to reappear. IS this not happening for you?

Pam

[Andrew Lockton]

In my version of Word 2010 I can type into the Caption field of the dialog.

If you can't do this (I don't know why) then it doesn't matter much. Just use the dialog to insert the caption numbering. Once you return to the document, add your text in the same paragraph.

[jsallen]

I tried again. I can create the caption, which reads "Figure 1", but still can't enter anything in the "Caption" pane at the top of the dialog box. I could create the "Figure 1" using the dialog box and then type following that in the body of the document, but would that give me the functionality I want? Seems to me that if there's a pane in the dilog box I should be able to use it.

[jsallen]

Is the problem maybe that I am using the built-in "caption" style elsewhere in the document? I used that style, modifying it, for captions of a number of images. These captions aren't linked to the images. I am only using the style to define the appearance of the text. Perhaps if I selected another style for these? And, related question: can I have multilevel captioning that will show up in a table of figures, the way that different heading levels do in the table of contents? Some of my Figures consist of a series of images labeled A, B, C etc. I can have only one table of contents and I want to keep the table of figures separate.

[AuthorAnne]

What is the paragraph formatting of your "Caption" style? If it is right-justified, or if it is centered but has a large left indent, then the insertion point is too far to the right in the caption dialog box, so it is effectively outside the box. As you can't resize the dialog box, you might need to change the paragraph formatting of your "Caption" style.

[jsallen]

Thanks for thinking outside the box. I'll check on that possibility.