Automatic Figure Titles

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tedg
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Automatic Figure Titles

Post by tedg »

I am writing in many locations in a long document, adding figures before and after existing text and figures. I assume there is a way to have figures renumber dynamically. But before I dive in to that, is there a way to have references in the text to figures also update. That's the real bugaboo.

So I have text like "as indicated in figure 16..." If I introduce a new earlier figure, that would become Figure 17 both in the figure title (for which I have a Para style) and the in-text reference.
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phspaelti
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Re: Automatic Figure Titles

Post by phspaelti »

That's what Cross-references are for. NWP allows you to cross-reference items like list items or bookmarks. So you will need to choose one.
For example using Bookmarks
  1. Bookmark the relevant bit of text
  2. Go to the place you want to insert and choose "Insert Cross-reference"
  3. Choose the properties of the cross-reference
    • Insert reference to: Bookmark
    • Display Text: Bookmark text
But as you ultimately seem to want automatically updating Figure numbers, you should choose list items.
  1. Create a new numbered list "Figures". Make sure to set it to "continue numbering throughout document"
  2. Label your Figures using a paragraph with this list style
  3. Insert your Cross-reference to refer to the relevant list item
  4. Set cross-reference properties accordingly to show the updating list item number
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martin
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Re: Automatic Figure Titles

Post by martin »

Philip's advice is spot on. You definitely want to use a list style to automatically number your figures, and then insert cross-references to those list items to ensure the referential number is always accurate. This also creates nice clickable links in exported PDFs.

The one other tip I'll add is that Nisus Writer lets you come at the cross-reference creation process from either end, i.e. the source or destination. So instead of using Philip's suggestion to insert a cross-reference into the text, you can copy a cross-reference if you're already looking at the target list item. You select the list item (or other target content) and use the menu Insert > Cross-references > Copy New Cross-Reference, which is also available via the contextual menu. You can then paste the cross-reference anywhere you like.
tedg
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Re: Automatic Figure Titles

Post by tedg »

Many thanks.
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tedg
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Re: Automatic Figure Titles

Post by tedg »

But as you ultimately seem to want automatically updating Figure numbers, you should choose list items.
Create a new numbered list "Figures". Make sure to set it to "continue numbering throughout document"
Label your Figures using a paragraph with this list style
Insert your Cross-reference to refer to the relevant list item
Set cross-reference properties accordingly to show the updating list item number
This is what I need to do first. The goal is to end up with:

Figure 6: A Simple Illustration of...

I go to the list style creation area in the style view and can only see how to create

6. A Simple Illustration of...

What am I missing?
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tedg
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Re: Automatic Figure Titles

Post by tedg »

Ah, never mind. I see in the dialog box how to manage this. It is hard to see, but I think I applied a specific paragraph style to the list style.
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