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NinaBR
NinaBR
Inspiring
December 16, 2019
Answered

Best way to do autonumbered captions for figures in FrameMaker?

  • December 16, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2127 views

I'm in FrameMaker 15.0.4.751 and am still just learning my way around.

 

Simple question (I hope): What is the best way to do figure captions in FrameMaker? I see that tables are captioned automatically, but figures (or anchored frames) aren't. From what I've read, I can use a text frame, or I can create a table for holding figures. I'm not sure which of these would work best for me, or if maybe there are other options I haven't stumbled across yet. Below are the details of my project. I'm not sure if they're all relevant to my question above, but I'm including them just in case they are.

 

  • This is a FrameMaker book for multiple products that are very similar, using conditional text for the differences from product to product.
  • Many of the images will have condition tags, and all are to have captions that are numbered via auto-numbering. (I'm a little concerned that presence of the condition tags will affect autonumbering. In some cases, I may have ten different images taking up the same "space," depending on which version of the document is being viewed.)
  • I'm also going to have multiple tables (some of them with condition tags) throughout the document and need the figure autonumbering to be distinct from the table autonumbering. I'm guessing this will be a simple thing I can do with the paragraph designer.

 

I hope this is enough information, but please let me know if you need more. Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Barb Binder

Hi Ennar:

 

Some folks use tables, others just add the figure caption text to the paragraph above or below the paragraph with the anchored frame, and use the Keep Settings to keep them together. It really doesn't matter unless you intend to float the figures (which means the text that follows the figure backfills)—in that case use a table. 

 

As for the figure caption numbers, you will to address how to differentiate the figure captions from the table captions, and all other numbering series in your documentation. If you just need Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, you can add an F: at the beginning of the autonumber format, similar to the the T: that you will see for your default TableTitle style. It may be more complicated than this, but we won't know without additional information about exactly how the numbers need to look, and how you have set up numbering elsewhere in the book. 

 

~Barb

2 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 16, 2019

We are always happy to help.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
A
anneb6900236
Known Participant
October 8, 2020

Hi

I am hoping someone can help me. 
I did a large FrameMaker document last Spring and released it in June. I had more problems with Frame (2019) than I cared to count.
Someone finally looked at the book and one chapter seemed to have issues with the figure caption numbers. In the text it says See Figure 140, but for some reason, that figure 140 is 27.  In the List of Figures, however, that image is identified by Frame as 140.  Why does it read 27 and how do I fix it?  What would cause this? There is a chapter after it that also has the problem.
Funny thing I did not see it before I released it so I am not sure how this even happened. 
I need to get this done pretty quickly and the Adobe folks don't seem to be able to.

 

Thanks!!

Bob_Niland
Community Expert
Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 9, 2020

If the "See Figure 120" is a cross reference, what happens if you click Go To Source in the Xref dialog?

Is the "27" in a caption? How are captions done? What is the Flow tag for that text?

Is the "27" an autonumber, or hand-typed 2 & 7?

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 16, 2019

Hi Ennar:

 

Some folks use tables, others just add the figure caption text to the paragraph above or below the paragraph with the anchored frame, and use the Keep Settings to keep them together. It really doesn't matter unless you intend to float the figures (which means the text that follows the figure backfills)—in that case use a table. 

 

As for the figure caption numbers, you will to address how to differentiate the figure captions from the table captions, and all other numbering series in your documentation. If you just need Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, you can add an F: at the beginning of the autonumber format, similar to the the T: that you will see for your default TableTitle style. It may be more complicated than this, but we won't know without additional information about exactly how the numbers need to look, and how you have set up numbering elsewhere in the book. 

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    NinaBR
    NinaBRAuthor
    Inspiring
    December 16, 2019

    Barb, thanks for your help! I'm using numbering for headings, figures, and tables, and I haven't decided if I want to use the chapter number as part of the figure and table numbers (e.g., "Table 2-2").  It doesn't look like I'll need to float the figures (I had to look up exactly what that meant!), so I'll try the first option.

     

    Thanks again!

      Bob_Niland
      Community Expert
      Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      December 17, 2019

      If you elect to do the captions in tables in text frame in anchored frame (which is how I often do it), just avoid putting more than one visible paragraph at a time that uses the same autonumber series label. Unless it's been changed in later FMs, they don't increment.

       

      There was a long thread about this years back, lost in the latest forum revamp, but I kept a copy. Once I move to Win10 and get FM2019 running again, later this month, I'll check that it's still valid advice and repost it.

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