You can modify the default style for the names and numbering of things like figures, equations, sections, and the like easily in Latex. For example, you might want all the figures in supplemental material to be numbered S1, S2, etc.
To use Roman numerals for headings, place something like this at the
beginning of where you want the change to take effect:
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{\Roman{chapter}}
% this gives Roman number labels for the chapters
To number sections, pages, figures and tables nested within chapters:
\renewcommand{\thepage}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{page}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}
\renewcommand{\thetable}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{table}}
\renewcommand{\thefigure}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{figure}}
To number supplemental material with 'S':
\renewcommand{\thepage}{S\arabic{page}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{S\arabic{section}}
\renewcommand{\thetable}{S\arabic{table}}
\renewcommand{\thefigure}{S\arabic{figure}}
To modify the text used at the start of a caption:
\renewcommand{\figurename}{Supplemental
Material, Figure}
Last modified 12/22/09.