Word's features vs. workaround - (was: Word x-ref question)

["Monique Semp" <monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

I donât recall why I set up the template the way I did. But as I said, it 
started a long time ago, and likely what I wanted was impossible then. And 
when I upgraded to newer versions, I just kept doing things as I'd always 
done them.

For the Table of Contents, I use the standard heading styles and the 
automated method to produce it. It did what I needed.

For the List of Figures, I used the Table of Contents field (TOC) -- which 
is the automated way to do it -- and in the dialog box tab for Table of 
Figures (which pops up when you edit the TOC field code), I set the Caption 
Label to Figure, selected "Include label and number", selected the print 
options (show page numbers, right align page numbers, and used the dots as 
the tab leader). When I toggle the field code, it shows:

{ TOC \h \z \c "Figure" }

So this is the auto-generate way; I don't have to build it by manually 
putting in all the xrefs.

I haven't used Word much in quite a long while now. So the next time I need 
it for producing user docs in quantity (vs. small one-off docs for myself), 
I'll most likely need to upgrade to whatever's current then. And at that 
point, it seems that I should revisit my template, and likely create a new 
one. And likely it'll be easier to do things with a more modern version of 
Word.

-Monique

-----Original Message----- 
From: Lin Laurie
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2017 4:08 PM
To: Monique Semp ; Tammy Van Boening ; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com ; 
lonewriter-discuss -at- mailer -dot- stc -dot- org
Subject: RE: Word x-ref question

I've been talking to Tammy offline because my screenshots don't go through 
the list server as it doesn't like HTML. But why aren't you using Word's 
built-in tools that generate a caption for you and you can choose whether 
the label if "Figure (with or without the colon" or even custom labels) and 
then you can autogenerate the table of figures like you do the table of 
contents?

I know that some old timers use the old-fashioned ways to generate things 
like this when Word has some really nice automated tools that do a lot of 
the work for you. Out of curiosity, how do you generate a table of contents? 
Do you use Heading Styles and then use the automated way to do it or do you 
do it with field codes?

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+linlaurie1=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+linlaurie1=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On 
Behalf Of Monique Semp
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2017 4:02 PM
To: Tammy Van Boening <tammyvb -at- spectrumwritingllc -dot- com>; 
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com; lonewriter-discuss -at- mailer -dot- stc -dot- org
Subject: Re: Word x-ref question

Hi Tammy,

I'm still on Word 2010 (because I haven't needed Word for a client for a 
long while, so haven't bothered to update), but the numbering/xref functions 
don't seem to have changed since 2007, so it's likely still applicable for 
Word 2016.

I do not use word's numbering for the tables or the captions. It's been so 
long since I set up my Word templates (originally for Word 2003, and ported 
to Word 2007 and then 2010), and so long since I used Word for full-featured 
docs, that I don't recall a lot of why I have things the way they are. But 
in this case, it's certainly likely that I ran into the problems you're 
having.

Instead of using Word's numbering, I use sequence numbering via field codes 
right in the text itself. So if I expand the field codes for the text of 
Figure Caption-styled paragraph, which of course will contain the figure's 
caption, here's what it shows:

Figure {Seq Figure \* ARABIC \* MERGEFORMAT}. Title of the figure

IMPORTANT reminder to everyone about showing field codes: To replicate this, 
don't just type the curly braces and their contents as shown above. You have 
to insert the field code and make the right selections and add the right 
modifiers.

Then for every figure caption, I just copy/paste the text from another 
figure's caption, change the desired text, and select all/update field 
codes.

For the xrefs, I use Insert > Cross-reference, select Figure for the 
reference type, select Insert as hyperlink, and choose Insert reference to:
Only label and number. The result is the desired "Figure #", where "#" is 
the actual number.

The xref is going to use "Figure" for the label no matter what you actually 
type in the figure's caption, which effectively means that you must use 
"Figure" in your caption line text. (Otherwise it wouldn't match the xref's
label.)

I do the same process for tables.

This field codes for sequence numbering and the copy/paste of the text seems 
perhaps non-standard. But it's easy, and after a while it becomes so 
automatic you won't even think about it. And certainly much better than 
inserting bookmarks, which bring their own headache.

I'm not sure I got the procedure complete, so if it doesn't work, please ask 
for clarifications.

HTH,
-Monique

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