Caption Labels

[sharonturnbo]

I have a large technical document that has numerous graphics and tables
(including numbering) that I want to identify with caption labels of "Exhibit
X.XX: name" and "Table X-XX name". I usually use this on all my tech
documents, but in this one, I insert the ref: caption: and select the label,
either table or exhibit, and all prior captions are switching to that label,
instead of maintaining the label I used at the time of insertion.
Additionally, when I look in the numbered items list, all the caption names
have moved to the items that word changed the label to...ie, all my "exhibit"
labels have changed to table label and there in that list...I've never seen
this behavior before, but I must find a way to fix it...Any help would be
greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[Bear]

Sharon:

Sorry, but I don't have a solution here, just some troubleshooting ideas.
The behavior you describe is similar to what I've experienced when cutting
and pasting between documents with dissimilarlly formatted captions with the
same names. E.G. copying a figure capton formatted with chapter number prefix
into a document that doesn't use chapter number prefixing.

This is because the CaptionLabels collection is a property of the
application, not the document. Sigh.

The first suggestion is to toggle your view to see the Field Codes. You'll
notice that (at least in Word 2000) the caption numbers and prefixes are
implemented as SEQ fields. That means you can do search and replace
operations to make sure all the captions are the type (the SEQ field name)
you want them to be.

The second suggestion is to insert a dummy caption and redefine its format
the way you want the format for the document, then delete the dummy caption.
Sometimes the action of redefining the format shakes out the wrinkles.

Finally, try creating an entirely new, fictitiously named set of captions
and changing all your exhibits to the new caption type. Then attempt to delet
your exhibit caption. Then recreate it and move all your figures back to the
exhibit caption type.

If you're handy with VBA, you might poke around with the
Application.CaptionLabels collection to see if you can smooth out any bumps
there.

Bear

 

[sharonturnbo]

Bear -- thank you so much!...I believe it solved the problem....it was
originally a doc that began life around 1997 and has been modified and
updated numerous times with many different OS and Word versions....though it
took a good bit of time to delete and reenter 250 captions and all the cross
references...they now work....and this document should be good for updating
at least over next 5 yrs....much appreciation !!