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Adding a Figure caption to an image in a text, I Include the chapter number in the caption, so it would look something like that:

enter image description here

The problem has been addressed many times before, such as here or here but I haven't found any good solutions to it. It appears Word simply does not have an easy way to cross-reference to the number only.

How do I cross-reference to the numbers only?

The common approaches to tackle this problem will be described below (only the solutions that actually solved the problem) and I will try to explain why they are not good (at least for me).


Option 1: Change the field code

Right clicking the cross-reference (the gray field) and selecting 'Toggle Field Codes' shows something like:

REF _Ref31033181 \h 

Changing it to

REF _Ref31033181 \## \h 

or

REF _Ref31033181 \# 0 \h 

produces the same results:

enter image description here

Because the figure caption has the chapter number in it, the numbered cross reference always has [chapter number]+[figure number], independently of the actual format of the Field Code.

This first alternative does not work.


Option 2: create a new Building Block and cross-reference to the created numbers

I really don't like this options for two main reasons. 1. To cross-reference to the newly created number, the approach suggest to add a bookmark to it. This requires giving a name to the bookmark. The most obvious name is the figure number. Including other figures in the text and changing the order of the figures requires me to change all bookmark names. This is the same thing as doing manually all the Figure caption numbers and changing all the references in the text manually. 2. I want to Insert a Table of Figures. It does not seem simple to create it with the created Building Block number, as the Table of Figures is a built-in function.

Personally, I think this suggestion is horrible.


Option 3: Format the font as Hidden.

This seem to work: enter image description here

However, I don't like this option. I always show paragraph marks in my text. So, even though this solution works, it may look a bit confusing with paragraph marks.

enter image description here

This option requires more detailed attention the the cross-reference to check which text is formatted as hidden.

Another potential problem I see with this solution is that future changes may include changes to the actual formatting of the text. Normally, this is easily done by formatting the Styles associated with each text. However, if some of the text is hidden, and I update or change the text and/or the Syles format, this may change the 'Hidden' attribute.

So I would really like to find another approach to it. Something like the Option 1, but correctly formatting the [chapter number].[figure number].

Any suggestions?

1 Answer 1

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I arrived to the same conclusion as you. The only option I found anywhere on the net is as you stated. The only reasonable way is to use the hide text feature for the "Figure". I am still actively looking for a "correct" way to do it like, similar to option 1. A lot of options working with field codes are summarized hon the link below FYI but they do not seem to work properly on the latest version of MS Word: http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/CombineXrefs.htm Regards, Oli

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    Oct 5, 2022 at 14:33

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