Condensing Figure Caption References

Chris wrote about problems having Word correctly refer to ranges of captions in his reports. For instance, referencing "Figures 1 to 6" instead of "Figure 1 to Figure 6," as is easily accomplished through the use of cross references. It seems that such proper wording is possible if the following steps are followed:

1. Position your insertion point where you want the range reference to occur.
2. Type the words 'Referenced in Figures ' (don't forget the trailing space).
3. Insert a cross-reference to the first figure in the range, making sure the "Only label and number" option is selected.
4. Type the word 'to' followed by a cross-reference to the last figure in the range. (Again, make sure the "Only label and number" option is selected.) Your document will look something like this:

Referenced in Figures Figure 1 to Figure 6

5. Select the 'Figure 1' field and press Ctrl+F9. Word creates a new field with the 'Figure 1' REF field inside it, as follows:

Referenced in Figures { Figure 1 } to Figure 6

6. Inside the new field, to the left of the 'Figure 1' embedded field, type 'QUOTE ' (make sure you include the space).
7. Inside your new field code, insert ' \* "Arabic" ' between the embedded 'Figure 1' field and before the closing brace. Again, note the spaces.
8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 for the other cross-reference.
9. If you press Alt+F9 to show field codes, your document should look something like this:

Referenced in Figures { QUOTE {REF _Ref111111 \h } \* "Arabic" } to { QUOTE {REF _Ref22222 \h } \* "Arabic" }

10. Press Alt+F9 to switch back to viewing field results, then select the two new fields and press F9 to update them. The result should be something like this:

Referenced in Figures 1 to 6

The trick is to use the QUOTE field along with the \* "Arabic" formatting switch. The QUOTE field de-references the REF field, making it seem as if it were simple text. The Arabic format tells Word to display the text in Arabic numerals. Serendipitously, Word ignores non-numeric characters when it applies the Arabic switch.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9802) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Condensing Figure Caption References.