Latex: How to place a float and subfloat item on more than one page

When preparing our paper(which is intended to submit to an IEEE
journal) rencent days, we faced a problem about how to place a figure
which has many subfigures, saying more than eight subfigures into two
sequential pages without break it into two smaller figures, that is to
keep continuous subfigure labels, (a), (b), ..., (p)... Or you want to
put one single float or subfloat item in multiple sections.

I would like the share the solutions which is provided by the
maintainer of the "subfigure" package Dr. Steven Douglas COCHRAN from
Carnegie Mellon University. It's very kind of him, and we thanks a lot
for such a detailed answer.

The answer is quoted as follows:

Yes, this can be done in several ways. First, with the 'subfigure'
package, you can either include the additional package 'captcont' which
provides this service at both the float (figure, table, etc.) level and
the subfloat (subfigure, subtable, etc) level. The other way is to
tweak the figure/subfigure and/or table/subtable counters to achieve the
same effect. The newer 'subfig' package (which replaces the older and
deprecated 'subfigure' package) has an easier method, which requires
only adding the line "\ContinuedFloat" to the surrounding float environment.

However, below are shown the two methods using the 'subfigure' package,
first with the 'captcont' package and then again without it. (More
examples are shown in the documentation of the 'captcont' package, which
is available from CTAN, or from my website http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sdc
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Esdc>.

> \documentclass{article}
>
> \usepackage{subfigure}
> \setcounter{lofdepth}{2}
> \usepackage{captcont}
> \def\figbox#1{%
> \fbox{\hbox to 2in{%
> \vbox to 1.5in{%
> \vfil
> \hbox to 2in{%
> \hfil
> #1
> \hfil}%
> \vfil}}}}
> \begin{document}
> \listoffigures
> \newpage
>
> \section{Example One: Using the {\tt captcont} Package.}
>
> The first figure~\ref{fig:oneI} has four subfigure in its
> first section and four in the continued section. Note the
> use of the ``$\backslash$captcont'' command in the first
> section of the figure and the ``$\backslash$caption*''
> command in the second.
>
> \begin{figure}
> \subfigure[This is subfigure one.]{%
> \label{fig:oneA}%
> \figbox{One}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure two.]{%
> \label{fig:oneB}%
> \figbox{Two}}\\
> %
> \subfigure[This is subfigure three.]{%
> \label{fig:oneC}%
> \figbox{Three}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure four.]{%
> \label{fig:oneD}%
> \figbox{Four}}\\
> \captcont{This is the First Figure.}
> \label{fig:oneI}
> \end{figure}
>
> \begin{figure}
> \subfigure[This is subfigure five.]{%
> \label{fig:oneE}%
> \figbox{Five}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure six.]{%
> \label{fig:oneF}%
> \figbox{Six}}\\
> %
> \subfigure[This is subfigure seven.]{%
> \label{fig:oneG}%
> \figbox{Seven}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure eight.]{%
> \label{fig:oneH}%
> \figbox{Eight}}\\
> \caption*{This is the First Figure (cont).}
> \label{fig:oneII}
> \end{figure}
>
> \section{Example Two: Without the {\tt captcont} Package.}
>
> The second figure~\ref{fig:twoI} also has four subfigure in
> its first section and four in the continued section. Note,
> however, that at the begining of the second section of the
> second figure, the {\tt figure} and the {\tt subfigure}
> counters are adjusted. Also, when not using the 'captcont'
> command, the second section caption shows up in the
> list-of-figures. This can be {\it fixed} by not using
> the ``$\backslash$caption'' command and faking the caption
> under the second section of the second figure using
> something like:
>
> $\backslash$centerline\{\{Figure\space$\backslash$fig\{twoI\}:
> This is the Second Figure (cont).\}\}
>
>
> \begin{figure}
> \subfigure[This is subfigure one.]{%
> \label{fig:twoA}%
> \figbox{One}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure two.]{%
> \label{fig:twoB}%
> \figbox{Two}}\\
> %
> \subfigure[This is subfigure three.]{%
> \label{fig:twoC}%
> \figbox{Three}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure four.]{%
> \label{fig:twoD}%
> \figbox{Four}}\\
> \caption{This is the Second Figure.}
> \label{fig:twoI}
> \end{figure}
>
> \begin{figure}
> \addtocounter{figure}{-1}
> \setcounter{subfigure}{4}
> \subfigure[This is subfigure five.]{%
> \label{fig:twoE}%
> \figbox{Five}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure six.]{%
> \label{fig:twoF}%
> \figbox{Six}}\\
> %
> \subfigure[This is subfigure seven.]{%
> \label{fig:twoG}%
> \figbox{Seven}}
> \qquad
> \subfigure[This is subfigure eight.]{%
> \label{fig:twoH}%
> \figbox{Eight}}\\
> \center
> \caption{This is the Second Figure (cont).}
> \label{fig:twoII}
> \end{figure}
>
>\end{document}