Table captions converted to figure captions, & vice versa

[bufossil]

I am working in a 100+ page document that contains about 30 figures and
about 30 tables. Without warning, Word converted all captions to Table
captions. If I change any of the Table captions back to a Figure caption,
all captions convert to Figure captions.

Does anyone know what is going on? I found 1 person on the Web (on a
different Web site) that had the same problem, but no one provided a
suggestion.

Thanks!

 

[bufossil]

I forgot to mention, I am using Word 2003 on Windows XP SP2. Thanks!

 

[Stefan Blom]

Did you create some captions manually? Note that if you later make some
modification in the Caption dialog box (for example, changing the number
format), Word will try to alter all captions (of the same type), which
could destroy any manual changes.

What are the field codes of the problem captions? Press Alt+F9 to find
out.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[bufossil]

When I reveal the Field Codes with Alt + F9, this is what I see.

The caption itself = Figure{ SEQ Figure \* ARABIC}

The cross-reference = { REF _Ref165352750 \h \* MERGEFORMAT }

I think everything in the field codes is normal, with the exception of the
"\* MERGEFORMAT" part. However, the captions themselves are what seem to be
corrupted, not the cross-references to them.

Any ideas about how to correct the problem would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[bufossil]

For a while I thought the following solution was going to work:

1. If the first caption in the document point to a Figure (which means all
Figures and Tables in the document are called "Figure"), navigate down the
document and find the first table.
2. Toggle the Field Codes on.
3. You see something like: Figure{SEQ Figure \* ARABIC}
4. Manually change both instances of "Figure" to "Table."
5. The preliminary indication was that Word would now allow both Table
captions and Figure captions in the same document at the same time.

However, upon further analysis, this did not fix the problem. Apparently,
when you manually overwrite "Figure" and replace it with "Table," Word still
thinks that everyting is a "Figure" and does not retain a separate numbering
system for the objects that now appear as "Tables" in the Field Codes.

Still requesting assistance for this one. Thanks!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you insert the captions using Insert | Reference | Caption, you can
choose either Figure or Table as the label. Choose the appropriate one in
each case, and the result will be Figure {SEQ Figure \* ARABIC} for the
figures and Table { SEQ Table \* ARABIC } for the tables.

 

[bufossil]

Thanks for trying to help Suzanne. What you describe below is precisely what
I did when I created the document originally, where I had about 30 Figure
captions and 30 Table captions. The problem is that Word converted all Table
captions to Figure captions, so that now all 60+ captions are Figure
captions. If I change any single one of the Figure captions to a Table
caption, then Word converts all 60+ captions to Table captions. Right now in
my document, Word is not allowing me to have both Table and Figure captions
at the same time.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That being the case, I think you need to treat the document as corrupt. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm

 

[Stefan Blom]

After changing the codes, did you remember to update the fields? You can
force an update by selecting the whole document and then pressing F9. If
that doesn't help, I'd definitely agree with Suzanne: the document is
corrupt.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message

 

[bufossil]

Suzanne and Stefan, thank you for your kind assistance. I was really hoping
the template was not corrupt and there was an easy solution. However, I will
use the suggestions on the link provided by Suzanne in her second reply.

Thanks again for your help.

Tim

 

[bufossil]

I think I know what causes the error in Word captions. Say you are working
in a long document that contains many Table captions and many Figure
captions, and the most recent caption you created was a Table caption.

Then you come to a Figure, and want to create a Figure caption. However,
you are going as fast as you can to meet a deadline, so you create Table
caption again by accident (because by default the caption tool retains the
last type you created). After you click the Ok button and look at the
caption, you realize it should be a Figure caption, not a Table caption. So,
you mouse click in the left margin to select the entire incorrect caption to
overwrite it, then select Insert > Reference > Caption, and make certain you
select Figure this time. You click OK, and 9 times out of 10 it works.
However, I have now had two documents where Word "merges" the Table and
Figure caption code, so that all of the captions in the document are either
Table or Figure captions, but Word will no longer allow a mixture of both in
that document.

To avoid this problem, *never* overwrite a caption with a caption of a
different type. Instead, *always* delete the caption with the incorrect
type, and create a new one in an empty area of the document.

Tim

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition, if auto captioning is enabled, I don't think there's any way to
get more than one type automatically.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note that the behavior you are describing is consistent with my remark
in my initial reply: Since you are selecting a caption and then changing
it in the Caption dialog box, Word assumes that you are trying to change
*all* captions of the same type into a different type--and the result is
that all of your captions change.

In other words: what happens is logical (at least from Word's point of
view) and may not be a case of corruption after all.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


in message