Caption Numbering

[Guest]

I am adding captions to figures and tables in my document. When I open the
Insert|Reference|Caption dialog box it automatically puts the correct caption
number in the top line of the box (i.e. Figure 1-1). However when I insert
that caption in the document it changes to Figure 1-2. This is the first
time i have used captions and I created the document from scratch so i know
there aren't any other captions in there. Why does it automatically change
to 1-2 when the caption is inserted and how do I get it to read 1-1?

 

[Stefan Blom]

Are you tracking changes? If so, you need to accept all changes and
then update fields, and then numbering will display correctly.

Other things to check:

- Hidden text
Click the ¶ button on the Standard toolbar; this shows nonprinting
marks (for more, see
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NonPrintChars.htm). Do you see
any captions in hidden text (displays with a dotted underline)? If so,
delete them. When you are done, you can press the ¶ button again to
hide nonprinting marks. Select the document and press F9 to update
fields.

- Field codes
Press Alt+F9 to display field codes. Captions with chapter numbering
will display similar to: { STYLEREF 1 \s }-{ SEQ Figure \s 1 }. If you
find an \h switch (hides the number) or an \r switch (restarts
numbering at the specified value) in one of the SEQ fields, delete it.
Select the document and press F9 to update. Then press Alt+F9 again to
hide field codes.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Guest]

Are you tracking changes? If so, you need to accept all changes and
then update fields, and then numbering will display correctly.

I'm not tracking changes.

Other things to check:

- Hidden text
Click the ¶ button on the Standard toolbar; this shows nonprinting
marks (for more, see
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NonPrintChars.htm). Do you see
any captions in hidden text (displays with a dotted underline)? If so,
delete them. When you are done, you can press the ¶ button again to
hide nonprinting marks. Select the document and press F9 to update
fields.

No Hidden captions

- Field codes
Press Alt+F9 to display field codes. Captions with chapter numbering
will display similar to: { STYLEREF 1 \s }-{ SEQ Figure \s 1 }. If you
find an \h switch (hides the number) or an \r switch (restarts
numbering at the specified value) in one of the SEQ fields, delete it.
Select the document and press F9 to update. Then press Alt+F9 again to
hide field codes.

Pressing F9 does correct the numbering. It seems strange though that I need
to update every caption that is inserted. I can understand needing to update
if I move things around but I would expect the captions to be correct when
they are first inserted. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?cm9iZXh0b2w=?=,

Pressing F9 does correct the numbering. It seems strange though that I need
to update every caption that is inserted. I can understand needing to update
if I move things around but I would expect the captions to be correct when
they are first inserted. Any thoughts?

Which version of Word is this? Generally, Word does force the update of all the
captions when a new one is inserted. A quick test on my Word 2003 installation
does update them all when a new caption is inserted at the beginning of the
document, for example.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Guest]

I am using Word 2003 SP2 and yes, everytime I insert a new caption all the
captions in the section update. However, they continue to update incorrectly
by starting at Figure X-2 instead of Figure X-1. Everytime I add a new
caption i need to go back to the previous ones and hit F9 on each one. My
object wrapping style is "In front of text". Would that be causing problems.

Thanks, Rob

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?cm9iZXh0b2w=?=,

I am using Word 2003 SP2 and yes, everytime I insert a new caption all the
captions in the section update. However, they continue to update incorrectly
by starting at Figure X-2 instead of Figure X-1. Everytime I add a new
caption i need to go back to the previous ones and hit F9 on each one. My
object wrapping style is "In front of text". Would that be causing problems.

Wrapping styles are always suspect, certainly.

Hmm, while composing the "Other causes" below, a thought came to mind. When Word
updates fields, it works left-to-right, top-to-bottom - IOW with the text flow.
Wrapped objects are anchored to the text (see the anchors in the left margin by
activating the checkbox in Tools/Options/View, then click on an object). The
order of the anchors determine the order of field updates. So if you have a
couple of objects that were inserted "together" you may be getting a conflict
between those anchors. Try dragging the anchor of the caption that always starts
with "Figure 2" to a paragraph further down the page; and make sure the anchor
of "Figure 1" is above it.

Other possible causes that come to mind are: there's a "stray" caption somewhere
in the document that's "seeding" the 1; an Alt+F9 to toggle the field codes
might turn this up. There's some damage in some of the internal file structures;
you could try copying all but the last paragraph mark into a new document and
see if things "settle down". The damage might be at a more fundamental level (in
the actual field codes, for example); you could try deleting all the captions
(with field codes in view to make sure you get all the SEQ fields) then
reinserting them.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Guest]

The anchor order looks fine. I don't have any stray captions (the issue
happens on the first caption of every section). I didn't look into the
document damage issue.

I give up. I've resorted to doing the first caption in each section using
ordinary text.

Rob