Quickly Update and Renumber Figures in a Word Document
by Avantix Learning Team | Updated May 13, 2021
Applies to: Microsoft® Word® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)
If you have inserted figure numbers for images or drawings in a Microsoft Word document, you can update them throughout the document and the figures will renumber automatically. This is helpful if you have moved or inserted new images. In order to renumber figures, the figure titles and numbers must be inserted as captions (using the References tab in the Ribbon). Since captions are fields, they can be updated in a couple of steps.
Recommended article: How to Insert Built-in and Custom Fields in Microsoft Word
Updating figure numbers in a Word document
To update all figure numbers (caption fields) in a Word document:
- Click in the body of the Word document.
- Press Ctrl + A to select all.
- Press F9 (some users may need to press Fn + F9).
You can insert figure captions and table captions. If you select all and update, both figure and table captions will be renumbered if the images or tables have been moved.
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