
Select the list and click ‘Update Table’ under ‘Captions’ in the ‘References’ tab.Right-click on the list and select ‘Update Field’ from the menu (hold down ‘Control’ and click to open the menu on Mac computers).To update a table of figures, charts or tables, you can either: On the Mac, this is done by selecting ‘Table of Figures’ under the ‘Index and Tables’ section of the ‘Insert’ menu. This will add a list of elements with the matching label type, using the caption text as the title of each figure or chart.


The default labels in Microsoft Word are ‘Figure’, ‘Table’ and ‘Equation’. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter! Caption options and labels. If you want to list figures, charts and tables separately, you’ll need to apply a different label for each. Remember to pick a label type for each caption. On Mac computers, captions are accessed via the ‘Insert’ menu. Adding a caption.Īlternatively, you can add captions via the ‘Captions’ section of the ‘References’ tab on the main ribbon. In Word, this is done by right-clicking on each image or chart and selecting ‘Insert Caption’ from the contextual menu.

The first step in creating a list of charts or figures is adding captions to your document. You may also want to use separate lists for tables, charts and figures, especially if there are several of each in your work. Lists of charts and figures usually appear at the start of a document, just after the contents. But in a longer thesis or dissertation, listing charts and figures will help your reader find relevant information quickly (much like a contents page). In a short essay with only a few charts or figures, it might not be necessary to provide a list. Luckily, Microsoft Word makes doing this simple. If you are using charts, tables or figures in an essay, it’s a good idea to list them somewhere in the document. Adding Lists of Charts and Figures in Microsoft Word
