A cross reference problem on referencing figures

Question

I am writing a paper which includes about 20 figures. I used "insert caption" on each figure to assign a figure number below. And then referenced the numbers in my text with cross references. This procedure worked fine but recently when I opened the document again, I cannot see any content under cross reference figure list. And the figure numbers under the figures changed to normal text format rather than auto-index format.

I mannully fixed the issue by reparing the cross reference one by one and saved the document. While surprisingly when I opened another time, all figure cross references lost again.

This is really troublesome to me. What should I do with this issue?

For more information:

1. The document's built-in template uses "Figure" as the prefix of figure insert caption, whereas I have to use a self defined string "Fig." as the prefix, which is required by IEEE publishing system.
2. The document was reviewed, commented and changed between me and my boss several times. My boss sometimes might use a word 2007 version.
3. I followed the self-help to check template error or document error. It looks everything is fine. If I create a new document, everything just works fine. But I am not sure if the cross reference would lost later.

Answer 1

This kind of issues are usually caused by incorrect cross-references. These, in turn, may be the result of pressing Enter at the beginning of a cross-referenced paragraph, which expands the hidden bookmark to include the newly created paragraph. The workaround is to always create new paragraphs, or add content, at the end of a paragraph of text. For existing documents, recreating the cross-references will be the easiest solution.           

To clarify, a hidden bookmark is created by Word each time you create a cross-reference via the Cross-reference dialog box (unless of course you are creating a reference to an existing bookmark).

Answer 2

Several issues occur:

1. When you go to print the figures are relocated from where they were placed
2. Many of the different images are replaced with a single image (multiple times)
3. The cross references are replaced with the ERROR! message related to cross references

Answer 3

What changes on print, exactly? The figures themselves or the cross-references?

Answer 4

I have the same issue with Word 2013 also for IEEE papers.  I place and cross reference equations figures and tables. When I print they are all jumbled and all the figures are changed. I replace them several times and eventually they stay put.  This is not an issue in Word 2010.

Answer 5

Are you saying that you can't insert cross-references via the Cross-reference dialog box? In that case, try creating a caption label named "Fig" (as this is what you seem to be using anyway).

Also, note that caption labels are stored in the Normal template, so if the document is edited on another system, the label should be (re-)created there.