Skip to main content

How to update or refresh caption numbers in Word?

Author: Amanda Li Last Modified: 2024-07-16

Captions in Word are used to label figures, tables, and other objects, providing a clear reference for readers. As you edit your document by adding or deleting figures and tables, the caption numbers may become out of sequence. It’s essential to update or refresh these caption numbers to maintain accuracy and consistency throughout your document.

In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to easily update or refresh caption numbers in Word, ensuring your document remains well-organized and professional.


Updating or refreshing caption numbers with short-cuts

It is very easy to use short-cuts to handle this problem. But you have to remember to do it.

Step 1: Press Ctrl-A to select all the text in the document.

Step 2: Press F9

All the caption numbers will be updated.


Updating or refreshing caption numbers with VBA

Alternatively, we can use VBA code to update or refresh the caption numbers. You can follow the instructions below.

Step 1: Press “Alt-F11” to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window;

Step 2: Click Module on the Insert tab, copy and paste the following VBA code into the Module window;

Step 3: Then click Run doc-remove-numeric-characters-1 button to apply the VBA.

The VBA code of updating or refreshing the caption numbers:

Sub UpdateCaptionNumbers()
Dim oStory As Range
Dim oField As Field
For Each oStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
For Each oField In oStory.Fields
oField.Update
Next oField
Next oStory
End Sub

Updating or refreshing caption numbers with Kutools for Word

Though the methods above are not very difficult to update or refresh caption numbers, here is the easiest way for you to update or refresh caption. That is Kutools for Word. After you have installed Kutools for Word, you can update or refresh caption numbers with one click.

Kutools for Word, equipped with AI 🤖, offers over 100 handy features to simplify your tasks.

After installing Kutools for Word, please do as below:(Free Download Kutools for Word Now!)

1. Please apply this utility by clicking Kutools Plus > Refresh in the Captions group. See screenshot:

doc refresh caption 1

2. After you clicking Refresh button, you will see all caption numbers are updated. See screenshots:


Easily Split one word document into multiple

Generally, we use copy and paste to split a Word document one by one, but the Split Documnet utility can split a Word document based on page, heading1, page break or section break, which will improve the work efficience.
ad split documents by page
Kutools for Word is the ultimate Word add-in that streamlines your work and boosts your document processing skills. Get It Now!

Best Office Productivity Tools

Kutools for Word - Elevate Your Word Experience with Over 100 Remarkable Features!

🤖 Kutools AI Assistant: Transform your writing with AI - Generate Content  /  Rewrite Text  /  Summarize Documents  /  Get Quick Answers, all within Word

📘 Document Mastery: Split Pages  /  Merge Documents  /  Export Selection in Various Formats (PDF/TXT/DOC/HTML...)  /  Batch Convert to PDF  /  Export Pages as Images  /  Print Multiple Files at once...

Contents Editing: Batch Find and Replace across Multiple Files  /  Resize All Pictures  /  Transpose Table Rows and Columns  /  Convert Table to Text...

🧹 Effortless Clean: Sweap away Extra Spaces  /  Section Breaks  /  All Headers  /  Text Boxes  /  Hyperlinks  /  For more removing tools, head to the Remove group...

Creative Inserts: Insert Thousand Separators  /  Check Boxes  /  Radio Buttons  /  QR Code  /  Barcode  /  Diagonal Line Table  /  Equation Caption  /  Image Caption  /  Table Caption  /  Multiple Pictures  /  Discover more in the Insert group...

🔍 Precision Selections: Pinpoint Specific Pages  /  Tables  /  Shapes  /  Heading Paragraphs  /  Enhance navigation with more Select features...

Star Enhancements: Navigate to Any Location  /  Auto-Insert Repetitive Text  /  Toggle Between Document Windows  /  11 Conversion Tools...

Kutools and Kutools Plus tabs on the Word Ribbon
👉 Want to try these features? Download Kutools for Word now! 🚀
 
Comments (8)
No ratings yet. Be the first to rate!
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
My understanding is that the practical page limit for WORD is 1,000 pages and 25MB. After that Microsoft Publisher is recommended.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
I am attempting to do the same - to renumber figures/photos after moving them around, without deleting and then putting them back in. I see the instructions to select all, then F9 or right click on 'update fields'. But since I don't want to include the cover photo and frontispiece photo (which I had to 'fool' into numbering that way) in the renumbering, I selected everything after those, starting with my figure 1 to the end. I then tried both F9 and update fields, and nothing happened.Word 10 in a docx file. Thanks.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you very much really
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you. It works :)
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thank you !! Ctrl-A + F9 rules (-: just a pity not to have learned this easy trick long ago
There are no comments posted here yet
Load More
Leave your comments
Posting as Guest
×
Rate this post:
0   Characters
Suggested Locations