How to update ALL fields in a document at once--caption numbers in text boxes and the text layer, headers and footers.

Anonymous
2010-03-13T02:21:19+00:00

My title just about says it--all of my  all.  I'm working on a long document; all of my inserted objects (figures and tables) are in text boxes with their captions.  Throughout the editing process some objects have been deleted or moved so now they're completely out of order.

How do I get them all to update at once?  When I select all (Ctrl+A) only the body gets selected.  It is currently ignoring all tables, figures, headers, footers where I have a lot of fields.  I don't mind having to go into the header/footers manually because that at least only has to be done once.  But with my captions, currently I have to select each caption in each text box seperately to update them. 

I appreciate all of your help.

Additionally, I have figured out that I can go to Print Preview and get them to all update so it's getting better...BUT I have two figures on a page (one on the top half and the other on the bottom half) and their figure numbers are out of order. 

Top of Page:  Figure 4-5

Bottom:  Figure 4-4

I've tried updating manually, I've even deleted both captions and re-input them...nothing.  What is going on?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-03-13T04:51:07+00:00

Going to Print Preview and back is the best way of updating all fields at once.

Do you by chance have the pictures and their captions in text boxes? If so, the caption numbering will be in the order of the locations of the "anchors" of the text boxes, not in order of the positions of the boxes themselves. First go to Office button > Word Options > Display and check the box to show object anchors. Now go to the page with the problem, and click on the edge of the upper text box. Note which paragraph has the anchor symbol next to it. Now click the lower text box. If the anchor for this one is on a paragraph higher on the page than the first one, drag it to a paragraph below the first one. Then go to Print Preview to update the captions, and they should straighten out.

Jay Freedman MS Word MVP

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  1. Stefan Blom 353.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-02T20:16:00+00:00

    Ctrl+A only selects the current so-called story range. For example, if the insertion point is in a text box, Ctrl+A selects all content in the text box, and if the insertion point is inside a header, Ctrl+A selects all content in that header. This is by design.

    The rules that determine how fields are updated are convoluted, to say the least... Many fields, but not all of them, will update if you switch to Print Preview. For example, FILENAME fields in the header or footer will update if you click File | Print, while FILENAME fields in the main body of the document will not update.

    SEQ fields in the main body of the document and SEQ fields in a text box will update if you switch to Print Preview.

    For more, see this Knowledge Base article, which also links to other articles with more information:

    Which fields are updated when you open, repaginate, or print document

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/211629

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  2. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-02T14:18:45+00:00

    You are right about the text boxes. It is not a bug. It is by design. I do not know why. I do know that this is the way it has been for a long time, though. Because of the way I use mailmerge, I do not have fields updated at printing so I'm not sure if it was this way in Word 97. It is this way in Word 2003.

    The macro will get the fields in text boxes, though. You can attach it to a button on your QAT.  Modifying the QAT and Ribbon in Microsoft Word

    It is generally recommended to use Frames rather than Textboxes if possible to hold fields. They are then in the body of the document and would be caught by the Ctrl+A selection. Frames and Textboxes in Microsoft Word

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-02T13:58:30+00:00

    Nope, the CTRL + A and F9 after the print preview, is no good as CRTL + A does not select the fields in text boxes. I guess it is a bug, I can't think of any logical reason why the print preview does update the fields in the header/footer and does not update fields in the body and text boxes.

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  4. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-02T13:33:08+00:00

    ***

    So for now, I still have the use the export function, if I want to make sure all fields are updated.

    ***

    You could do the Print Preview and follow up with Ctrl+A to select the entire body and the F9 key to update fields. That is still simpler than using the export.

    I use a macro I found on Graham Mayor's site. It is referred to earlier in this thread, and can be found at Installing Macros.

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