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I call both figures and tables "figures," partly because I've noticed that
many readers (including myself) are blind the to the word "figure" and
"table" when hunting up a cross-reference, and look only for the number.
This causes confusion when you're looking for a table and fetch up against a
figure. So, in my opinion, separate number streams add confusion, and it's
best to call everything with a box around it a "figure."
Not only that, but I'm very fond of combining figures and tables into a
single unit. The most obvious example is a diagram with an attached parts
list. Mechanically, the whole thing is one big table, with the cells in the
top row merged together and the diagram pasted there. This works very well
whenever you've got graphic and tabular material that are closely entwined.
It's also good for sidebars, where you've got a diagram on the top and
descriptive text in non-tabular form below. This draws the readers eye and
increases the odds that the diagram and descriptive text will actually be
read as a unit, which is unlikely if the text is buried in the body of the
document, especially if it's on a different page.
Another advantage of this technique is that it forces the material to stay
together on one page, provided that you design it so it can be shoehorned
into such a space.
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