In this article
A caption normally sits under the picture. It can be moved above it instead, so the words are read first and the image arrives as the answer.
One switch, and it changes which half of the message does the work.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Put the caption above the media.
- check_circle Decide which order suits the message.
- check_circle Set up a joke properly.
- check_circle Keep long captions readable either way.
The option is on the caption field while composing, before the message is sent.
swap_vert Which half arrives first
Below the picture, a caption explains something the reader has already seen. Above it, the caption is a setup and the picture is what happens next. Those are different messages built from identical parts.
Most of the time below is right, because most pictures are self-explanatory and the words are a footnote: where it was, what it cost, who is in it. Putting that above makes the reader hold a sentence in mind for no reason.
Above earns its place whenever the picture needs framing. A joke with a setup, a before-and-after where you have to say which is which, a screenshot that means nothing until you know what to look at. In each of those the reader who sees the image first has already formed the wrong idea and has to start again.
There is a practical consideration too. A long caption below a tall photograph can be pushed off the bottom of the screen on a phone, so the reader scrolls past the picture and never reaches the words. Moving the important sentence above solves that without shortening anything.
Four messages
Two want the text on top and two do not.
sentiment_satisfied The line before the punchline
crop_free Telling them what to look at
notes Leave it below
campaign In a feed
Above when the words prepare the picture, below when they explain it.
settings Using it
- Attach the media and write the caption As usual.
- Ask whether the words prepare or explain That is the whole decision.
- Move it above for a setup or a frame The option is on the caption field.
- Keep an above-caption short One line, ideally.
- Leave it below for ordinary pictures Which is most of them.
- Be consistent in a channel Per kind of post.
This page moves one block. The curriculum step is everything else you can do to a message's shape: bold and code, quotes and spoilers, and writing something that reads well before any picture is attached.
At a glance
- 1Caption above
Move the caption above a photo or video.
- 2Which order
Above sets up, below explains.
- 3Long captions
Keep long text below so the image shows first.
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