Figures and Tables missing from cross references list

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I’ve got a document in Word 2007 in which I’m trying to insert cross reference to various figures and tables. As I’m working through it, I have noticed that seemingly random figures and tables are missing from the lists in the cross references dialog. For example, Figure 9 is missing, but figure 8 is present in the list – here are the field codes for the two figures in the documents (inserted automatically by the insert caption tool): Figure 9 – { SEQ Figure * ARABIC }; Figure 8 – { SEQ Figure * ARABIC }. Likewise for the tables, Table 1 appears in the list, but table 2 does not. Here are the corresponding field codes for the tables: Table 1 – { SEQ Table * ARABIC }; Table 2 – { SEQ Table * ARABIC }.

Does anybody know what might be going on here and how I can fix it?

Thanks.
Bill Lugg

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Bill,

Are any of the tables/figures inside text boxes? I’ve found that if you do this they do not show up in the cross reference list. You can convert the text box to a frame, in the Text Box dialog, and then they will again show up.:cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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No, all the figures and tables are in-line. I did have the table captions in the first row of the table so that they would repeat from page to page, but then I discovered this problem, so I moved them out. However, only two of the table showed up in the list. I tried reinserting the captions from scratch, but to no avail. I then started looking at the figure list and discovered the same problem.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Bill Lugg

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Well, I was finally able to answer my own question. the answer might be helpful to others. It turns out that change tracking was wreaking havoc with figure and table numbers in the cross reference lists. I finally went through and selectively accepted changes to all the figure and table titles and the missing figures reappeared in the list.

The problem is that when they go away in the list, they also disappear in the document because the reference IDs become stale, I suppose. So now I get to go through and find all the places I inserted one of the references that disappeared and reinsert it. Thank you Microsoft…

HTH
Bill Lugg

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I had same issue as OP, and I was getting ready to bang my head against my desk! Turning off change-tracking completely fixed my cross-reference and table of contents/figures woes. Thanks again!

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Or right click on all texts and Update Field.

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I have the same problem, updating fields doesn’t work, nothing is in a text-box, tried restarting word but that didn’t work either. in my case, in place of missing figures, some of the figures are repeating themselves in the dialog box. figures go from 6-6-6-6-9-9 instead of 6-7-8-9-10-11

change tracking was never on in the first place. I turned it on, deleted a few things, accepted the changes, turned off the change-tracking and after that I checked the cross-reference dialog box again, and the missing ones and the repeating ones hadn’t changed. when I insert the second 6, the link goes to the 6th instead of the 7th.

I’m using office 2003

,

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so, some deep research in google search results took me to these pages:
http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/word-annoyance-cross-referencing/
http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/message-to-microsoft-fix-words-cross-reference-dialog-box/

not the article but a couple of comments took me to the right answer.

“Also, cross references can break when you add a paragraph by pressing Enter at the beginning of a referenced heading (in 2003 anyway). I have to try to remember to add the paragraph from the end of the previous item.”

“I’ve had this and the only solution I’ve found that works is to delete the entire cross-reference (with the extra stuff that came with it — page breaks, figures etc.), add a few extra spaces, then re-insert the cross reference correctly. Get rid of the extra spaces and update the cross reference (F9) to make sure the rest of the stuff doesn’t come back. If it does, check the figure (for example) for any line breaks (NOT paragraph breaks) between the figure and the caption in case these are the cause.”

yes, I had changed some paragraph breaks to line breaks to fit 3 figures in one page instead of 2. it seems I shouldn’t have.

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For more information on troubleshooting cross references see Lene Freeburg’s site

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It’s the end of my day and I haven’t read all the replies here yet, but we found that if there are tracked changes in any of the captions, you must accept those changes before the cross-referencing will work. It’s not turning on or turning off track changes–you have to accept any changes before the list appears correctly.

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