I've been using MS Word's features for cross-referencing figures automatically so I wouldn't have to worry about renaming figures if I need to change their order in my document. I had to change the order of some figures and now there are some figures with the same number and the numbers in the text are not updating.




If I try to update all fields by Ctrl + A followed by F9, it only updates the table of contents. The figure numbers and cross-references to figure numbers do not update. Also, I have to go through each figure and update its number manually, then delete the cross-reference and make a new one which completely negates any advantage there was to doing it manually; in fact, typing in the numbers manually would be much quicker than going through the cross-referencing menus.




Office 365.

Try the following: Click File | Print to display the print preview and then return to Print Layout view by pressing ESC. Does that update the cross-reference fields correctly?

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I have manually updated my figure numbers but they are numbered the wrong way around. The figure which is higher up the page should be 1-6 and the figure further down should be 1-7. How can I correct this properly? Thanks.

When you add captions to wrapped objects, Word puts the captions inside text boxes, and the numbering sequence for captions will be determined by the relative positions of text box anchors. You will have to move the text box anchors, which can be done via drag & drop, and then update fields.

Alternatively, put your objects "In line with text" which means that captions will be in ordinary text paragraphs (and part of the normal text flow).

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

If I make my objects in line with text and then add more text earlier in the document, it will push my captions away from my objects, right?


Edit: I tried making the objects in line with text and the captions stayed in their boxes but attempting to update the field didn't change the numbers.


Unfortunately, the anchors appear to be on top of each other and don't respond to my attempts to drag them around anyway.

Keeping objects and their captions together, and having the captions update correctly, is always a problem when the objects aren't inserted in-line. That's because the captions will also be inserted in a wrapped format, which places them in a different 'layer' from the body content and, so, won't update via Ctrl-A, F9, for example. The solution to both problems is to insert both the objects and their captions in-line in a table - which you can then give its own text wrapping.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

You have to select the object whose anchor you wish to move. In this case, it is important to remember that you have to move the anchor for the text box that contains the caption, so you should select the text box and move its anchor.

Again, however, using "In line with text" graphics will be a lot easier.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks but using "in line with text" just trades on set of problems for another. What I actually want is to put my images and their captions on the page and not have them move for anything. I want them fixed on the page. Immovable objects. Then I want the text to flow around them like water around rocks in a stream. If I choose "in line with text" and then add content to earlier pages, the images get pushed around and will leave unprofessional white gaps unless I manually rejig everything again and again and again and again... I still have to move my images when the anchors get shifted though. I want them anchored to the page; not to a paragraph in the text. It's really frustrating.

To fix an object onto a page is not possible in Word. You can't anchor anything to the page. Instead, you'll need page layout software.

Alternatively, make use of the other suggestions given here.


See also your other thread at https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/...ost130853.html.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Clearly, you haven't tried what I suggested; otherwise you'd see it's not true to say it "just trades on set of problems for another"...

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

Here's one problem when using a table in-line with text. The table/figure/caption in this screenshot take up a whole page and cause a paragraph to be split. Now Word thinks that the second half of the sentence is a new sentence (which is why it's suggesting capitalising the first letter of the first word). Now when I edit text earlier in the document, the integrity of the paragraph is not maintained; the text is not flowing around the figure/caption/table

But the text will never flow around a picture that takes up the full page. If the anchor is pushed onto a new page, so is the picture. The graphic is never 'anchored' permanently to a particular page number because the page contents are determined on the fly depending on the content and the attributes applied to that content.

If you want to see behaviour like a page layout program, you should use a page layout program. Adobe Indesign allows you to put the graphics on whichever page you want them and then the text can flow independently around the graphics. Indesign allows you to specify the exact page count and where every graphic sits on the page. If you set up the text to flow independently of the graphics you can overpopulate or underpopulate the text frame to your hearts content without changing the page count or which page the graphics sit on.

Word simply doesn't work that way and doesn't have the flexibility of a page layout program. It does have plenty of other features that are better than Indesign but fixed page locations for graphics is not one of them.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

InDesign isn't an economically viable option for me. I'm just trying to write a masters thesis. I can't be the first person to make full-page figures though. With over two decades of development, I'd have thought something this basic would have been addressed. I'll see if there's anything on Word's User Voice I can vote for. Maybe this: https://word.uservoice.com/forums/30...-page#comments

Word hasn't been designed to give the same level of control as a page layout program does.

To keep an object by itself on a page in Word, manual "tweaking" will be required, and you'll lose the automatic text flow for the pages involved. As an alternative, you can of course put the object at the end of the document, in an appendix.

If find that you do need a page layout program, you can always google for a cheaper option than InDesign.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I think it is important to frame your issue very clearly. Both page layout programs and Word processors have drawbacks with what you a suggesting your problem is.

Putting a graphic on a particular page and having the rest of the text flow independently around it is not actually what you want. This would result in the graphic being pages away from its associated text content when there are multi-page edits in front of the graphic. You would lose context for the graphic.

Using full-page floating OR inline graphics in Word will result in exactly the same behaviour with edits in front of that content. Full page is full page so floating or not makes no difference to where the graphic sits in the text stream or on the page.

What you 'really' want is to have the text flow around the graphic with some user-configurable fuzzy logic so the preceding page is always full with content irrespective of the edits prior to this point. The graphic should remain in the vicinity of the paragraphs that refer to it. Depending on the flow of text, you might describe this as wanting the picture to always appear on either the same page or next page as paragraph X such that all the pages are filled with content and not left half empty.

I don't know of any programs that have this fuzzy logic and it would be a welcome feature that might allow a program to differentiate itself from its competitors.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia