So I have a three level set of headings I made for Appendixes, giving the appendixes the names Appendix A, Appendix B etc, and a list style giving the sub headlines the name A.1, A.1.1 etc.

Earlier, all my figures and equations automatically got the name according to the appendix main headline, for instance Equation A.1 or Figure A.1 .

Then suddenly some textbox popped up when I opened word that "do you want to reset to standard blabla", I clicked yes and suddenly my captions ignored the appendix headlines. Instead, all captions get their indexing from the number of the last "Heading 1", so all captions no starts with the number "7" instead. I don't want that.

Apparently it's possible for Word to adapt captions to "custom" headlines, the questions is how? Can I somehow trick word into believing that my Appendix headlines are "Heading 1" at the same time?



Here is a work around for it, but I don't want to use it as it's a hassle and as it worked before somehow: http://shaunakelly.com/word/numberin...ppendixes.html

This is not simple. The method you don't want to use is likely the best solution. That said:
See Complex Documents: Captions.
Captions can be set the way you want. They are essentially SEQ fields with an extra label.

See also: Create a Table of Figures.
The TOC field looks for a certain label.

Ooo =/ It would be/is weird if they still haven't implemented a standard way to incorporate appendixes. Appendixes must be a rather common thing to have.

If you don't want to use the workaround in Shauna Kelly's article, then you won't be able to make use of the "magical" properties of the built-in headings, and that, in turn, means that you'd have to manage the restarts of captions yourself.

However, to start from the beginning, what was the exact words of the message that you encountered?

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional