Hi,
I work with word 2011 for mac and I am trying to create a handbook (through publishing layout) with many inserted figures.
Usually there are 2 figures on each page. The problem is that when I insert captions above the figures, they are not numbered in the correct order. The first figure on the page (top part) is no2 and the second (bottom of the page) is no1. It is really problematic, especially with the Table of figures not being in the order I want.
Thanks for your help!

Have you tried updating the document's fields (eg via Print Preview)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Yes, I have tried several times and it is not working...
But thank you!
Any other idea?

If these captions are bing inserted via References|Insert Caption, with the same 'Figure' or 'Table', etc. reference, the numbering should update immediately a new one is inserted. Of course, if you have some named 'Figure' and others named 'Table', for example, the 'Figure' numbers don't update when you insert a 'Table' caption, and vice-versa.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

They are all named "Figure". The problem is that they do update correctly, but on the same page, if I have 3 images and I want them to be numbered from top to bottom "Figure 1", "figure 2" and "figure 3", it is not working. I end up having "figure 3" then underneath "Figure 1" and then at the bottom "Figure 2".
I have no idea why this is happening, but it still does. The thing is that there is no text at all in the document. It is just a handbook full of pictures and captions. I have tried to replace the captions by headings (numbered) and it is still doing the same weird numbering...
Maybe another software would be better to do that? (with the options like Table of content...)

Many thanks!

Hi Aureiphi,

Your latest description suggests there's something odd about the page layout.

Can you attach a copy of the affected part of the document to a post (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Ok Here is the file, thank you very much for your help!
All the best

Attached Files

Handbook problem.doc (460.0 KB, 16 views)

Hi Aureiphi,

The problem is due to having the captions in textboxes. When you do this, the numbering order depends on where the order in which the textbox anchors occur in the document, not on the textbox locations. As you had multiple textboxes anchored to the same physical locations, the anchor order probably reflected the order in which the textboxes had been anchored there. Getting them 'right' in such scenarios can be quite time consuming, involving inserting empty paragraphs, then dragging anchors from one to the other in the correct order.

The better approach is to not put the captions into textboxes in the first place. Indeed, with what you've posted, there's no need for the captions to be put into textboxes, or for the pictures to be given the 'square' layout. I've reformatted it so that the Captions are now in the body of the document and the pictures are formatted as 'in-line with text'. The Caption numbering will now look after itself.

See attached.

Attached Files

Handbook problem.doc (448.5 KB, 11 views)

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much for your help and your work on this. I really appreciate!
It makes sense. I won't use word publishing layout again for this (it automatically creates the boxes when inserting captions).
Anyway thanks again for your help!
Cheers,

Aurelie

Hey

The case you are referring to is because the whole page is one paragraph. Simply divide the paragraph to two, where each figure includes a paragraph. Then you wont worry about the anchor thing.

Peace