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. Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2011-03-16T06:10:06+00:00

    Word is doing what it's supposed to do - if you don't want a custom cross-reference to update, don't use a cross-reference field for it - or only use the field for the part that's supposed to update.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-04-12T11:14:17+00:00

    Yes, it's possible to update the auto-generated text of references like paragraph number ("4.3.5").

    Unfortunately this method updates text of ALL cross references. For example, if you have custom (manually edited) text of reference on picture, auto-uptate will revert the custom text to automatic one along with other auto-generated things.

    The real solution of this problem is as follows:

    1. create a hyperlink on picture/table as usual;
    2. select unwanted autogenerated text and make it invisible (right click->Font->tick off "Invisible");
    3. Surround the rest of visible hyperlink with ordinary text.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-04-12T14:14:23+00:00

    Or you could just lock fields that you currently don't want updated. To lock a field, select it and press Ctrl+F11. (Conversely, Ctrl+Shift+F11 unlocks the fields in the selection.)

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-06-16T11:34:19+00:00

    Many thanks for these tips - very useful.

    Amazing how MSWord can be so cumbersome to use sometimes. It seems as though you either need to spend a long time learning the intricacies of fields etc. or you need to do everything manually.

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