I am writing up a report, and I started the first page in MS word so the first figure was created this way. The formatting of the figure caption wrt the border is exactly what I want. Notice that the border is above the caption.
When I open the document to edit it with Libre Office, I add another figure (by Insert>Image) and give it a border too. This is fine until I go to add a caption. The caption is INSIDE the border. How can I put the caption outside the border?
You shouldn’t assume everybody knows how MS Word messes up everything.
Supply an example file and I can try to analyze, and to find the differences.
Anyway: If a shape is associated with a caption there needs to be an object to make sure the positioning of the shape and the caption remain related in the appropriate way. LibreOffice Writer uses a TextFrame object for the purpose, And the frame itself is (must be) accessible for selection. It is visible therefore in the screen view. If you set the border of the frame to No Borders, nothing will be printed. Since LibreOffice has a reasonable concept of styles, you can define a frame style with a chosen name (captionFrame e.g.) having set the properties you want, and assign it with a doubleclick to the frame object you want to be reformatted. You may try the standard frame style Graphics which has no borders set, and judge if it meets your needs.
When you Insert>Caption, you create a frame around the picture (which is itself a frame) and all properties fo the picture frame are transferred to the surrounding frame.
There are two ways to fix.
A - The poor man’s way (direct formatting)
Right-click on the border and Frame or Properties (depending on LO version), go to the Border tab. Suppress the border.
To recreate the border around the picture, first click in your page to deselect the frame. Right-click then on the picture and ``FrameorProperties), go to the Border` tab. Recreate the border.
B - The automatic way (styling)
Pictures are assigned the Graphics frame style while text frame are assigned Frame. Customise those styles.
Display the style side pane if not already visible (F11). Click on the third toolbar icon from the left (Frame Styles when hovering over it). Right-click on the style name and Modify. Change the Border tab.
It happens frequently that modifying the frame styles does not update the document. In this case, select the frame(s) and reassign the style by double-clicking on the name.
With styles correctly configured, future picture insertion and captioning will be automatically formatted as you like it.
I highly recommend that your document be saved as .odt and converted to .doc(x) only to be exported to external recipients in its final form. Always work with .odt because Word has no notion of frame styles and conversion may lose information in this area.
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