Numbering and cross-referencing

One of the most common things linguists do when writing papers is add and rearrange sections, examples, figures etc. This can lead to endless renumbering headaches, especially when these items are referred to in the text — e.g. “As I show in example (6)…” Word has a range of tools to make all this easy and automatic. Note that using these tools might be harder than simply typing a number in the first instance, but in the long run it pays off.

The kinds of numbered things discussed here are distinct from both paragraph numbering (such as you would use for a list) and line numbering. Both of these types of numbering are automatic and handy for short, local number sequences, but they give you less control and should not be used for numbering things which are a) not adjacent and b) might need to be cross-referenced.

Headings

It’s always a good idea to use the built-in heading styles — Heading1, Heading2 etc. — for your headings and sub-headings, since you will then be able to take advantage of some special features:

• You can automatically number your sections and subsections (1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc.). To get this effect: choose Format | Bullets and Numbering | Outline Numbered, and choose an option in the dialog box. The conventional option for linguistics papers is the sixth.
  
• You can use Outline View to see the organization of your document and reorganize it easily (choose View | Outline, or click the tiny button immediately to the right of the bottom scrollbar). In this view you can display as many levels of your document as you want, and you can reorder them by dragging headings to another location (subordinate headings and text will all move together).
  
• You can use the Document Map (View | Document Map) to navigate around your document. This is a collapsible list of headings which appears in its own window to the left of the document; you can go to a heading simply by clicking on it (very convenient in a long or complex paper).
  
• When you use the vertical scrollbar to move through your document, you will see both the page number and the current heading whenever you pause. This is yet another way to move quickly to a particular section.
  
• You can automatically cross-reference your headings, by number, title or both, and even the direction (above or below — e.g. “As pointed out in section 1.3.2 above…”). If you move the section or it's renumbered, the text of the reference will change. Choose Insert | Reference | Cross-reference and choose Heading under Reference type.

Example Numbering

You can number any series of items automatically using what Word calls a “Sequence Field”. This is particularly useful for example numbers. Follow these steps to insert an example number:

1. From the menu, select Insert | Field.
2. Under Categories, choose Numbering.
3. After the word SEQ which appears in the bottom of the dialog box, type an “identifier” — a word which distinguishes this sequence from other number series you may use in the same document (I always use “EX” for examples).
4. Click OK.

Use the “Options” button to select “switches” which control how the number is displayed (for instance, to reset the series or repeat the last number), and to add bookmarks (for cross-referencing).

To see the field itself (i.e. {SEQ EX}) instead of the number it represents, right-click the number in the document and choose “Toggle Field Codes”.

If you insert another SEQ field earlier in the document, the number that displays will appear to be incorrect. That's because the display is updated only when you request it. You can see the correct number by right-clicking and typing F9 or choosing “Update Field”. To update all fields in the document, select the whole text (Ctrl-A) and do an “Update Field”. Under Tools | Options | Print there's an option to update all fields automatically before the document is printed; it's definitely wise to check this.

A macro ("ExampleNumber") that will automatically generate an example number with surrounding punctuation and update the field is available for download at Lingword.dot.

You will probably want to cross-reference your example numbers in the text of your papers: e.g. “As exemplified in (23) above...” (In fact, it's good practice to make sure you have something to say about every example in your paper, since each one should have a reason to be there.) Since SEQ fields can change their values, you need a way to automatically update the cross-references when that happens. To this end you can use something called a “bookmark”. Bookmarks allow you to refer to text in one part of a document from another part — including the displayed value of a field reference. To add a bookmark to an example number, follow these steps:

1. Select the example number, including any punctuation (such as parentheses) that you want to include in the cross-reference.
2. Choose Insert | Bookmark.
3. Type a name for the example. It has to be unique, and it should be something which refers to the content of the example rather than its position, since that might change. I usually pick some text from the example.
4. Click Add.This creates a bookmark.

There is an example formatting macro in Lingword.dot — “TableExample” — that generates an example number and automatically bookmarks it, using the example text to generate a bookmark name. This can save a lot of time.

To cross-reference your example number:

1. Go to the place in the text where you want to refer to the example.
2. Choose Insert | Reference | Cross-reference.
3. Under Reference Type, choose Bookmark.
4. Under Insert Reference To, choose Bookmark Text. (There are some other options available here, such as page-number references; feel free to experiment!)
5. Under For Which Bookmark, choose the name of the example you want to refer to.
6. Uncheck Insert as hyperlink.
7. Click Insert, and then Close.
   

The cross-reference you just inserted is also a field: thus, the remarks above about updating, viewing and deleting fields apply here too.

Captions

You could, of course, also use SEQ fields to number figures and tables. However, there is a better way to do it, which gives you greater flexibility in cross-referencing — and the ability to generate a figures list.

Select the figure and choose Insert | Reference | Caption. Choose a label, decide whether you want the caption above or below the item, and type the caption in the edit box.

To cross-reference the figure, use Insert | Cross-reference again. Under Reference type choose Figure, Table or whatever you used as a label. You now have several useful choices under Insert reference to — the label and number (e.g. Figure 1), the caption itself, etc.