atw: Re: Caption placement

Bill:

From my time in book publishing, I think figure titles went below because 
that's the position they /always/ had, right back to Caxton's grandmother.

My preference is to put figure titles above (or before) because that's 
where the heading or title announcing every other element of a publication 
is placed (excepting /Wired/ and /Parade Song Hits/ magazines).  The other 
items of text surrounding a figure are the /legend/, that is, the key to 
any symbols or abbreviations on the diagram, and the /caption/, consisting 
of the prose paragraphs that describe or augment the diagram with other 
information not readily rendered graphically.

In layout intensive books, such as coffee-table picture books and food 
porn, for purely aesthetic reasons determined by the graphic designer 
(Pshaw! Wash yer mouf out!), the textual elements of a figure (title, 
legend, caption, credit, citation) are often grouped in a block which is 
placed above, below, right or left of the diagram or other illustration as 
the needs of the layout require.

So I would be recommending the title of the figure to be above in user 
documentation, whereever the other textual and graphic elements of the 
figure are placed.

Regards,
Hedley

--
Hedley Finger
Training Content Developer and Tools Specialist
MYOB Australia Pty Ltd <http://myob.com/au>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood VIC 3151 Australia
<mailto:hedleyDOTfingerATmyobDOTcom>
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421,   Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558

© MYOB Technology Pty Ltd 2006
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