Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Adding Caption Labels.

Adding Caption Labels

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 12, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


1

If you use the captioning feature of Word, you can easily insert consistent, automatically numbered captions for different elements in your documents. For instance, you can insert captions for tables and figures.

Word allows you to define different labels that are used with your captions. In the caption "Figure 7," the word "Figure" is the label portion of the caption. By default, Word provides three standard caption labels: Figure, Table, and Equation. If you want, you can define different labels for use with your captions. To define labels, follow these steps:

  1. Display the References tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the Insert Caption tool, in the Captions group. Word displays the Caption dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Caption dialog box.

  4. Click on the New Label button. Word displays the New Label dialog box. (See Figure 2.)
  5. Figure 2. The New Label dialog box.

  6. Enter your new label, exactly as you want it to appear.
  7. Click on OK to save your label.
  8. Click on Cancel to dismiss the Caption dialog box.

Now you can use the newly defined label whenever you want to add captions in the future. Simply follow the steps to insert a caption as you normally would but choose the caption you just defined.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13301) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Adding Caption Labels.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is 2 + 8?

2022-03-12 20:41:18

steve Leach

I've been using Word and Excel for years with Links from Excel -> Word with no problem. I just bought a new laptop with the latest version of both programs, Office 365 and One Drive. Now links won't stick between saving, closing and reopening. I think the problem is a OneDrive issue, but its a really big problem and I'm at a loss for a viable solution.
Thank you


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