[Tex/LaTex] Redefine table caption

Question

I'm writing a paper in IEEEtran twocolumn format. When putting pictures in my paper I prefer to use the Table environment over the Figure environment. I feel that the Table environment does a better Job of placing the images in the paper where I want them to go.

The issue is under all my images they say TABLE [roman numeral]. Is there a way to redefine in the header what the \caption command displays?

I would like to keep using the Table environment but I want it to read, Figure #:

Answer 1

This should work

\renewcommand{\tablename}{Figure.} % in preamble

EDIT: I realize that any tables that you have will also be labelled 'Figure'. Don't know how to work around that.

UPDATE: As Bernard suggested below, I learnt that you can use \captionof on a case-by-case basis, which is really handy if you have both figures and tables in your document.

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage{caption}
%\renewcommand{\tablename}{Figure.}

\begin{document}
\captionof{figure}{example}
\vspace{-10pt} %This brings the caption closer to the table
\begin{table}[htp]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{llll} \hline
a & b & c & d \\
a & b & c & d \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\captionof{table}{example}
\begin{table}[htp]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{llll} \hline
a & b & c & d \\
a & b & c & d \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}