Instead of manually changing the placement of all \caption
commands, you may load the floatrow package:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{floatrow}
% \floatsetup[figure]{capposition=top}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\caption{A figure}
(Figure content)
\end{figure}
\end{document}
Here is the kind of thing I think you want although I'm not sure. You can fiddle with the sizes to make the most of the space but you need things smaller than in the MWE unless you want more than 2 lines of sub-figures which is another option.
\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage[left=3cm, right=2cm, top=3cm, bottom=4cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
%Graphs and Diagrams
%\usepackage{subgraphic}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage[demo]{rotating} %remove 'demo' option for real file
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage[labelsep=newline,% line break after label
justification=centering,
singlelinecheck=off, font=bf]{caption}
\makeatletter% Set distance from top of page to first float
\setlength{\@fptop}{5pt}
\long\def\@makefigcaption#1#2{%
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\footnotesize\textbf{#1.} \footnotesize#2
\ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\hsize
\textbf{#1.} #2\par
\else
\global \@minipagefalse
\hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\box\@tempboxa\hfil}%
\fi
\vskip\belowcaptionskip}
\renewcommand{\figure}{\let\@makecaption\@makefigcaption\@float{figure}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\section{Appendix}
\centering
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{turn}{90}
\begin{minipage}{.75\textheight}
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE3}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE3}} \quad
\end{minipage}
\end{turn}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
Update
To move the figure downwards, you can insert some vertical space before and after, followed by a \clearpage
:
\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage[left=3cm, right=2cm, top=3cm, bottom=4cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
%Graphs and Diagrams
%\usepackage{subgraphic}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage[demo]{rotating} %remove 'demo' option for real file
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage[labelsep=newline,% line break after label
justification=centering,
singlelinecheck=off, font=bf]{caption}
\makeatletter% Set distance from top of page to first float
\setlength{\@fptop}{5pt}
\long\def\@makefigcaption#1#2{%
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\footnotesize\textbf{#1.} \footnotesize#2
\ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\hsize
\textbf{#1.} #2\par
\else
\global \@minipagefalse
\hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\box\@tempboxa\hfil}%
\fi
\vskip\belowcaptionskip}
\renewcommand{\figure}{\let\@makecaption\@makefigcaption\@float{figure}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\section{Appendix}
\vfill
\centering
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{turn}{90}
\begin{minipage}{.75\textheight}
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE3}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE3}} \quad
\end{minipage}
\end{turn}
\end{figure}
\vfill
\clearpage
New page
\end{document}
Update II
As requested, here is a way to customise the captions for figures and tables:
\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage[left=3cm, right=2cm, top=3cm, bottom=4cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
%Graphs and Diagrams
%\usepackage{subgraphic}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage[demo]{rotating} %remove 'demo' option for real file
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage[labelsep=newline,% line break after label
justification=centering,
singlelinecheck=off, font=bf]{caption}
\makeatletter% Set distance from top of page to first float
\setlength{\@fptop}{5pt}
\long\def\@makefigcaption#1#2{%
\vskip\abovecaptionskip
\footnotesize\textbf{#1.} \footnotesize#2
\ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\hsize
\textbf{#1.} #2\par
\else
\global \@minipagefalse
\hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\box\@tempboxa\hfil}%
\fi
\vskip\belowcaptionskip}
\renewcommand{\figure}{\let\@makecaption\@makefigcaption\@float{figure}}
\makeatother
\DeclareCaptionLabelFormat{my-figures}{%
\def\tempa{figure}%
\def\tempb{#1}%
\ifx\tempa\tempb(\textbf{#2})\else{\centering(\textbf{#2})}}
\captionsetup{labelformat=my-figures,labelsep=quad}
\begin{document}
\section{Appendix}
\vfill
{\centering
\begin{figure}[h]
\begin{turn}{90}
\begin{minipage}{.75\textheight}
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Full Sample]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_full_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:fullDSUE3}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE1 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue1.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE1}} \quad
\subfloat[DSUE2 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue2.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE2}}\quad
\subfloat[DSUE3 $-$ Pre-Crisis]{\includegraphics[width=0.225\textheight]{aasc_precrisis_dsue3.eps}\label{fig:preDSUE3}} \quad
\caption{Figure Caption}
\end{minipage}
\end{turn}
\end{figure}}
\vfill
\clearpage
\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}
A & table\\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Table Caption}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Best Answer
As I understand your question you want the margin note to be ragged towards the margin it is typeset in. This answer is based on Lars Madsen's answer to memoir: sidecaption: ragged against the text block not working.
For you particular example
\strictpagecheck
is still needed because the float is moved to the next page. A full working example based on you work is encluded here. Please note that this is very depedent on memoir.EDIT: The code now provides the
raggedsidecap
andraggedsidecap2
environments. The optional argument is the label for the caption. The first argument is the width of the float and the second is the caption text. The inside of the environment is placed in the float.