How to display figure number only in cross reference

Anonymous
2012-03-09T17:01:27+00:00

Is there a way to have a cross reference to a figure only display the number, without displaying the label?

For example, I want to reference several figures at once, so it is most natural to say "see Figures 1,3,6, and 9".  It is less natural to say "see Figure 1, Figure 3, Figure 6, and Figure 9",

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Stefan Blom 352.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-03-09T19:53:23+00:00

After you have inserted the cross-reference, add a so-called numeric picture switch to specify a number format. To do that, press Alt+F9 to display field codes; you'll find that the cross-references are REF fields. Add # "0" to the end of the relevant REF fields. Press Alt+F9 again to hide the codes, and press F9 to update fields in the selection.

Alternatively, manually add a bookmark around the figure number and then insert a cross-reference to the bookmark text.

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Stefan Blom 352.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-03-15T22:46:33+00:00

OK, if heading numbering is included with the captions, you can't use the workaround with the numeric switch.

Edit: You actually can use a numeric switch; see Suzanne's article at http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/CombineXrefs.htm.

As previously suggested, you can add a bookmark around the caption number and insert a cross-reference to bookmark text. Alternatively, use the "kludgy" workaround in the article at http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/CombineXrefs.htm.

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-03-26T23:07:02+00:00

    It may be a Mac thing that causes the addition of the numbers.  However in Windows, after creating a new caption googoo so that I could select it in the Cross-reference dialog, what appears in that dialog is the whole of the paragraph containing the caption

    If you insert a cross-reference to the Entire caption, you will get the complete paragraph.

    If you insert the cross-reference to "Only label and number", you will get the text from the beginning of the paragraph upto and including the caption number.

    As a result, the cross-rerference that displays 2 in your example, will display

    This is my next reference: 2

    and the 2006 in your example becomes:

    This is a third reference that happened in 2003: 3

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-26T18:41:44+00:00

    Stefan,

    Heading numbering was not included in captions, to my knowledge.

    What I am saying is: using the numeric switch technique was unreliable. It had nothing to do with headings. All that was required was other numbers mentioned somewhere in the paragraph, and it would start adding up numbers in the paragraph. For example, I had a year mentioned somewhere in the paragraph, and it would add that year to the numeric value. It made no sense. I think it's some sort of bug.

    Here is a file that contains the problem. This occurs in Word 2011. I am planning to upgrade. Maybe that will fix it.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pf4upm5sewsed5/ExampleForStefan.docx?dl=0

    Note the number "2006". It added 2003 to 3. 2003 is just a number in the text.

    I am now using the bookmark text method and that works well. Thank you.

    -Tony Mannucci

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  3. Stefan Blom 352.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-02-28T07:03:45+00:00

    Note that manually adding a bookmark and then cross-reference the bookmark text will always work.

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