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Mahesha999
Copper Contributor
May 04, 2022

How to swap table numbers in Word

I have several tables with caption. To insert any table, I used to first insert a text box and then insert table inside it. And finally insert a caption for it. Now I have several such tables with caption (each inside its own textbox). Now I wanted to swap the position and table number of two of these tables say table 3 and 4. First, I swapped their position. Then to automatically regenerate their table numbers, I selected whole text in the doc and then hit F9 key to regenerate table numbers. But it did not regenerate table numbers for these swapped tables. So, now I have table 4 before table 3. How do I fix this?

PS1: I put tables and caption inside textbox, because when I tried it without textbox, caption used to appear at weird places far away from corresponding table, usually at the top of the page, even though the table itself is somewhere at the middle of the page.

PS2: Am using Word 2016

  • Mahesha999 There is almost certainly no reason for using Text Boxes. However, when you do use text boxes, they will be anchored somewhere in the document

    and the order of those anchors in the document will determine the sequence of the numbering.  

    I would suggest that you do NOT use textboxes.  However, if you want to retain them, you can click on the anchors and drag them to the correct position relative to one another.

  • Mahesha999 

     

    As Doug pointed out, when you add captions to a "floating" object, the caption will be positioned inside a text box. Caption numbering is provided by SEQ fields, which are added to the text boxes. 

     

    The screen shot below illustrates that the relative position of text box anchors will determine the SEQ numbering sequence. You will have to move the anchors, as Doug suggested. Update the fields by switching to print preview and back (you can use File > Print and then ESC).

     

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