Re: What do you put in figure captions

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

Well, guys...in less than 24 hours, I received about
50 responses to this question. Thanks

For those who are interested, with minor variation,
the concensus seems to be the following format:

Figure #: [Window Title]; [Content Description]

example:

Figure 2: Commission Assign - BANK; banks included in
commission profile

Thanks for the responses, now to discuss it with my
client


--- Dick Margulis <ampersandvirgule -at- worldnet -dot- att -dot- net>
wrote:
> John,
>
> This thread emerges every few months, and it has
> been a couple of cycles
> since I have expressed my minority opinion on the
> subject, so I guess
> I'm due again (for the benefit of people who don't
> remember to seek out
> my pearls of wisdom in the archives on a continual
> basis <g>).
>
> A figure caption (a short title above the figure,
> mostly used on
> old-fashioned picture pages of pre-1970 newspapers)
> would be confusing
> in this situation.
>
> What you need is a figure legend (a longer
> description, below or to the
> side of the figure) that informs the reader.
>
> Scientific American is my touchstone for legend
> writing. They do it
> right. In fact, they do technical writing and
> editing right in general
> IMHO; and all techwhirlers should be familiar, at
> least, with the styles
> and forms they use, even if you don't find it
> interesting enough to
> subscribe to it. You cannot apply all of them in
> every situation, but
> you can certainly learn from their example.
>
> When writing a legend, especially in the confusing
> situation you
> describe, make the first sentence brief and unique.
> Write it like a news
> lede, so that the reader immediately gets the point.
> Make it an active
> sentence, not just a bland label, if possible.
>
> Technically, make the Figure label and number,
> together with the lead
> sentence, one style (a style that is picked up for
> the LOF); and make
> the remainder of the legend a different style, even
> though it is the
> same font and size. That way the LOF (regardless of
> what publishing
> platform you are using) generates using the figure
> number and lede
> sentence but omits the rest of the long legend.
>
> Here is a hypothetical legend, using pseudo-tags:
>
> <legend><prefix>Figure <chapter_num>-<figure_num>.
> </prefix>When the
> Order Entry screen includes a blank Order Number
> field, you are entering
> a new order and the system will assign an order
> number.</legend>
> <legend_tail> To modify an existing order instead of
> entering a new
> order, press F6 and type the order number in the
> popup
> window.</legend_tail>
>
> The information in the legend may duplicate
> information in a numbered
> procedure in the text. That's okay. Different
> readers learn through
> different modalities, as was discussed in a thread a
> few days ago.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Dick
>
> John Posada wrote:
> >
> > Hello, people...
> >
> > I have a Frame book of about 450+ pages and among
> > those 450+ pages, I have 270+ images...mostly
> screen
> > shots....
> >  I want to compose the figure caption
> > based on a descriptive format based on the
> contents
> > but I'm outvoted by one or two people around here
> that
> > want me to use the title of the window as the
> figure
> > title, regardless of how redundant they may be.
> >
> > The problem is that when I generate the Figure TOC
> > (LOF to those in the Frame world), the list
> doesn't do
> > much to help a person find a graphic of a window
> since
> > he may find 12-15 figures listed with the same
> > caption.
> >
> > I'm looking for ways that you-guys* use to caption
> > graphics so that the Figure index is half-way
> usable.
> >
>

===
John Posada
Western Union International
(w) jposada -at- westernunion -dot- com
(p) john -at- tdandw -dot- com
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