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Figure Labels Duplicating in Table of Figures - Help!

Jennifer Light 0 Reputation points
2026-04-22T14:03:08.4733333+00:00

Hi I am using Microsoft word for a long document, and we are including a table of figures. Somehow the numbering of the figures got messed up (the first figure was being listed as figure 2,), and so I tried to manually update the figure labels by right clicking and "inserting caption". Now, the figure is showing up twice in the table as figure 1 AND as figure 2. (I think doing this created another caption. But the weird thing is, after deleting BOTH captions from under the figure, it is still being listed twice in the table, even after updating and even rebuilding the table of figures. How do I get these lingering figure labels to disappear, and how do I UPDATE figure labels without just creating new ones, because that is clearly causing problems.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | MacOS

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  1. Stefan Blom 341.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-04-22T17:36:41.5566667+00:00

    Press Option+F9 to display field codes. In the advanced Find & Replace dialog box, enter ^d SEQ (in the "Find what" box) and then search for the field codes. You should be able to locate and delete the excessive fields.

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  2. Charles Kenyon 167.4K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-04-24T23:15:06.0766667+00:00

    Stefan has given you the keyboard shortcut.

    When you find each SEQ field, you likely want to also delete surrounding text in your caption. It will likely be in the Caption style which is something you can search independently for.

    The keyboard shortcut is a toggle and you want to toggle back to showing field results once you are done.

    What is happening here suggests to me that you have captions underneath or behind your figures. Simply switching the figures to be in-line-with-text may reveal the hidden Captions.

    You can also use the hyperlinks in your Table of Figures to help you go to the problem Captions.

    References:

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  3. Michelle-N 16,635 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-04-22T14:52:49.8+00:00

    Hi @Jennifer Light

    Based on the information you shared, I understand that you are experiencing persistent "ghost" entries and duplicate labels in your Table of Figures, even after manually deleting the visible captions from the document body.

    This behavior usually occurs because inserting a new caption into a figure that already has one creates a second, often hidden, SEQ field (the underlying mechanism Word uses for automatic numbering). When you delete the visible caption text, Word frequently leaves behind an "orphan" or hidden field. This is particularly common if:

    • The images are in a floating format (wrapped in a text box or shape).
    • Track Changes was enabled when the captions were created or modified.

    To better understand your specific document structure and resolve this quickly, would you be comfortable sharing the file (or a sample of it) with me via private message? If possible, I can test it directly in my environment to identify the hidden fields and provide you with a clean fix.

    I look forward to helping you get your document back in order!

     Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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  4. AI answer

    2026-04-22T14:03:26.75+00:00

    The table of figures is driven entirely by caption fields. If a figure appears twice in the table, Word still “sees” two captions for that figure somewhere in the document, even if the visible text was deleted.

    Use these steps to clean up and prevent duplicates:

    1. Reveal and remove lingering caption fields
      1. Press CTRL+A to select the whole document.
      2. Press ALT+F9 to toggle field codes. Captions will look like Figure { SEQ Figure \* ARABIC } or similar.
      3. Around the problem figure, look for multiple SEQ fields for the same label (for example, two { SEQ Figure ... } fields near the image or on nearby lines, including in empty paragraphs or text boxes).
      4. Select and delete the extra SEQ field(s) and any associated caption text that should not exist.
      5. Press ALT+F9 again to hide field codes.
    2. Rebuild the correct caption for that figure
      1. Click the figure once to select it.
      2. Go to References > Captions group > Insert Caption.
      3. In Label, choose the correct label (for example, Figure).
      4. Type any descriptive text after the label if needed.
      5. Select OK.
    3. Update all captions and the table of figures
      1. Press CTRL+A to select the entire document.
      2. Press F9 to update all fields. This refreshes all caption numbers and the table of figures.
      3. If prompted, choose to update the entire table.
    4. Avoid manual typing of figure numbers
      • Do not type or edit the figure number itself (for example, changing “Figure 2” to “Figure 1” by hand). Always use Insert Caption so Word manages the { SEQ ... } fields.
      • If a number is wrong, delete the whole caption and reinsert it using Insert Caption, then update fields with CTRL+A + F9.

    If a figure still appears twice after this, there is almost certainly a second caption field somewhere (possibly in a header, footer, text box, or hidden paragraph) that needs to be removed using the ALT+F9 view.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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