Inserting Caption Appears to Hang Word (115411)

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a caption in a document that already has several captions, Word may appear to hang. The caption appears in the document, but the Caption dialog box remains on screen (with no hourglass or message that indicates a process is taking place).

CAUSE

This behavior is by design in Word 6.0 for Windows. When you insert a caption, Word updates all the other captions in the document so that it can insert the new caption with the correct number. The more captions in the document, the longer this operation will take. Word does not give any indication that it is updating.

WORKAROUND

Instead of inserting a caption number by choosing Caption from the Insert menu, use the following procedure to copy and paste an existing caption number and update the number.

Select an existing caption. Be sure to include the paragraph mark.
From the Edit menu, choose Copy.
Place the insertion point where you want the new caption to appear.
From the Edit menu, choose Paste.

The new caption appears, but shows the wrong number. To update the caption number for this and all the other captions:

From the Edit menu, choose Select All.
Press F9.

This will take the same amount of time as inserting the caption from the menu. The update status will be displayed on the status bar.

You may instead, set Word to update all fields in the document when it prints:

From the Tools menu, choose Options.
Select the Print tab.
Select Update Fields (place an X in the box.)

If you use this setting it is not necessary to select the entire document and press F9.