Hello, my name is Erin.
I’m a professional copy editor who shares writing tips for the real world on this channel
and on my blog at erinwrightwriting.com.
This tutorial shows how to change the style of table titles and figure captions in Microsoft Word.
Style includes things such as font, font size, emphasis, font color, alignment, line spacing,
spacing before and after, and indentation.
Please note that I have a separate video titled
“How to Insert Figure Captions and Table Titles in Microsoft Word,” which is linked below.
Today we’ll look at three different processes:
How to change the style of existing and future table titles and figure captions.
How to create a new caption style in documents without existing table titles or figure captions.
How to change the style of individual table titles and figure captions.
I’ll be using Word for Office 365, which is currently the same as Word 2019.
The steps are the same in Word 2016 and similar in Word 2013 and Word 2010.
However, your interface may look slightly different in those older versions of the software.
This section shows how to change the style of all existing table titles and figure captions
in your current document.
These changes will also apply to any table titles and figure captions
added to the same document in the future.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then, select the text of an existing table title or figure caption.
Next, select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group.
Once the Styles pane opens, select the menu arrow to the right of Caption.
Note that the arrow won’t be visible until you hover your pointer over that spot.
Select Modify from the drop-down menu.
And then make all necessary formatting changes in the Modify Style dialog box.
As mention in the introduction, the eight basic modifications are font, font size, emphasis,
font color, alignment, line spacing, spacing before and after, and indentation.
When you’re finished, ensure that Only in this document is checked
so that your new style will be limited to your current document.
Also ensure that Automatically Update is not checked.
If Automatically Update is checked,
you won’t be able to change the style of individual table titles or figure captions.
Finally, select the OK button.
The Modify Style dialog box will close automatically.
Select the X to close the Styles pane.
Your titles and captions should now feature your new style choices.
Now we’re going to create a new caption style in a blank document or a populated document
without existing table titles or figure captions.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then, select the dialog box launcher in the Styles group.
Next, select the Manage Styles button in the Styles pane.
When the Manage Styles dialog box appears, select the Sort order menu arrow
And then select Alphabetical from the drop-down menu
Select Caption from the Select a style to edit menu.
Followed by the Modify button.
As shown in the previous section, make all necessary formatting changes
in the Modify Style dialog box.
And then make sure that Only in this document is checked
so that your new style will be limited to your current document.
Once again, also ensure that Automatically Update is not checked in order to preserve your ability
to change the style of individual table titles or figure captions in the future.
Finally, select the OK button to close the Modify Style dialog box
and the OK button to close the Manage Styles dialog box.
Followed by the X to close the Styles pane.
When you do eventually add table titles or figure captions into your current document,
they will receive the styles you just set up.
In this last section, we’ll quickly change the style of individual table titles and figure captions.
It’s important to note that these steps will only work if Automatically Update is
not checked in your Modify Style dialog box, as shown in the previous two sections.
If Automatically Update is checked, any changes made to one table title or figure caption
will be applied to all table titles and figure captions in your document.
To begin, select the Home tab in the ribbon.
Then, select all or part of the table title or figure caption text that you want to change.
Then, choose options in the Font and Paragraph groups to select new style options,
just as you would regular body text.
Your changes will appear immediately and should not affect your other table titles or figure captions.
As always, remember to save your document to save all your changes.
The companion blog post for this video listing all the steps we just performed appears on
erinwrightwriting.com, which is linked below.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic related to Microsoft Word
or Adobe Acrobat that you would like me to talk about in the future.
And please subscribe to my channel and give this video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!