In one new company template style mandated by upper echelons, the graphic title sits above the graphic, the caption below the graphic. Three style are used altogether in this arrangement, with "next paragraph style" follow-ons. Since the TOC only picks up one style when generated, it can pick up the title (e.g., Exhibit 1) but not the identifying caption. In most of our documents, a caption ID is important, particularly in long documents.

Since the captions are often just a few words identifying the graphic, including them in the title as well would be redundant.

Looking for a solution, I came across the StyleRef field, with the thought of including this with the title but formatting the font white or otherwise hiding it. I know little about field language. When I tried to use it to pick up the caption style, it picked up the caption style okay, but from the previous caption, not the one below the graphic of the title into which I was incorporating it. I'm sure there is a way to reorient this, but don't know how. Please see the attached document to see what happened, the styles, etc.

The potential issue I see in this approach, would arise when a graphic is presented with only the title, no caption, in which case I assume that the Style Ref would go on to the next caption. I would think it might be easiest to simply insert a caption and hide the text. does that seem reasonable, if still fraught with the potential of someone deleting it inadvertently?

Thank you.

Attached Files

Styleref example.docx (337.1 KB, 11 views)

Hi Philip,

If I understand it correctly, in essence you're looking for a way to have the content of two separate paragraphs combined into a single TOC entry, preferably without having a combined version of those paragraphs visible in the body of the document. Correct? The problem with using a STYLEREF field for this is that, if you format its text as white, it'll show up as such in the TOC - which means it'll generally be invisible. For similar reasons, formatting the STYLEREF field as hidden text won't work.

See the attached as a possible workaround. What I've done is to use a single paragraph for the label and description, with the image wedged in between them, using a square format. This way, you can have your TOC and the basic layout you wanted. Note that, as the description is centreds but the label is left-aligned, I used a right-aligned tab after the label to force its left alignment. The tab shows up in the TOC, though its space requirements can be minimised there - and may even be considered useful in that context.

Attached Files

Ulodesk.docx (221.1 KB, 15 views)

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul, your workaround is ingenious, and I thank you. It might be possible to use. I did not state the present need clearly enough, and it may be that the optimum case is not possible in Word.

In order to keep the formatting differences between Title and Caption, the style for the package of three items would have be in the Title style (with the text border), realigned to center, using the tab as you did. Since the font size is the same for the caption, locally formatting it with italics would create the proper appearance. I have learned to worry, however, in the proposal environment, that this could easily become a burden for the DTPs after docs return from authors, reviews, etc., if the docs are exhibit-heavy and long. If styles have to be updated or something else goes funny with the formatting, or graphics jump out of their nests aster being forced across a page break in repagination due to paragraphs being added or removed, fixing it could take longer than it's worth.

In any case, the issue will come up in a meeting soon; we'll see what is decided.

Again, thanks for your solution.

Philip

Hi Philip,

You could easily enough define a character Style for the Caption portion, and add that manually. If you can't rely on others to implement the solution properly (and it is a bit tricky), the Style management could be handled via a macro that simply goes through the whole document, looking for paragraphs in the Title style and ensure the character style for the Caption is applied to the first line (if there's a terminating line feed).

Frankly, the thing I think most users will have difficulty with is getting the picture between the first & second lines. I imagine many will simply insert three separate paragraphs, as you now have.

A more reliable approach would be to design a custom Quick Part that inserts a picture content control between the first & second lines, all pre-formatted, so that the user only needs to insert the picture into the content control and type the title.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Paul, thanks for your continued and valuable suggestions. In our environment, our still fairly frequent obligation to submit documents in 2003-compatible format knocks out content controls. And I agree on the trickiness of graphic placement in the manual line-return model.

As it happens, our director has chosen the path of least resistance and risk, adding a real title to the Title style line following "Exhibit x", and keeping the caption a separate entity with non-redundant wording.

I'm grateful to have gained several options from you and Stephan to consider for future, less restricted endeavors.

Cordially,
Philip