Advertising Information

Your Ad Here!

December 2005 

A Word On Word

Return Home

Return Home

Using Captions and Cross-References in Microsoft® Word 2003

By Gail Van Landingham

Microsoft® Word 2003 includes a set of tools in Insert > Reference. Captions and cross-references are part of this tool set.

Even if you don't use Word to create long documents, one of the engineers or managers at your company probably does. You can be a hero if you give them some pointers about these tools.

Adding Captions

Word does automatic numbering of captions quite well. This was an eye-opener to one of our managers who was typing caption numbers individually and retyping them every time he inserted a new caption.

• Types of labels. Word has three types of built-in labels for captions: figures, equations, and tables. If you want to get creative, add your own custom labels.
• When automatic numbering happens. Word automatically renumbers your captions when you display your document in Print Preview or when you print the document. To renumber the captions immediately, press Ctrl+A (select all) and press F9 (update fields).

To Insert a Caption

1. Click where you want to insert the caption.
2. Click Insert > Reference > Caption.
   The Caption dialog box opens.

3. To select a label other than the default Figure label, click the Label drop-down list box and select another label.
4. In the Caption box, add a description after the label. For example, your caption could be Figure 1: Iris in bloom.
5. Click OK.
   Word inserts the caption at the insertion point.

Tip: After you insert the caption, you can change the caption title at any time. Just don't type over the label and the automatic number field.

To Create a Custom Label for Captions

1. Click where you want to insert the caption.
2. Click Insert > Reference > Caption.
3. Click the New Label button.
4. Type the name of the label, and click OK.
   The new label appears in the Label drop-down list box.
5. Add a description after the label.
6. Click OK.

To Change the Type of Numbering for Captions

The standard numbering that Word uses for captions is Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). You can select another numbering type.

1. Click where you want to insert the caption.
2. Click Insert > Reference > Caption.
3. Click the Numbering button.
4. In the Format drop-down list box, select the sequence you want.
5. Click OK.

Adding Cross-references

Some of our software developers create manual cross-references. They type "See page 20," but that doesn't work well when they add a couple of pages of text before page 20. I gently let them know that Word can create and update cross-references automatically.

You can choose from the following list of reference types:

To Insert a Cross-Reference

1. Click where you want to insert the cross-reference.
2. Click Insert > Reference > Cross-reference.
   The Cross-reference dialog box opens:

3. In the Reference Type drop-down list box, select one of the following:

• Headings. Any paragraph formatted with the built-in heading styles in Word. This is my personal favorite.
• Numbered items. Any numbered paragraphs.
• Bookmarks. A block of text identified with a bookmark.
• Footnotes.
• Caption types. This includes figures, equations, tables, and any custom caption labels that you created.
  

4. In the Insert Reference To drop-down box, select what you want to include in the cross-reference. For headings, this could be the page number or the heading text.
5. In the For which numbered item list box, select the specific target that you want to cross-reference. In the headings example, Word makes it easy for you to find a heading by listing the text of every heading in your document. Heading 1 is flush left, Heading 2 is indented, Heading 3 is indented more, and so on.
6. If you want the cross-reference to appear as a hyperlink, select the checkbox for Insert as Hyperlink.
   
7. Click Insert to add the cross-reference.