Word 2016 custom caption label not being saved

[stuck]

The trouble with being retired is you forget things...

When I was working we had a custom caption label called 'APPENDIX' and it was available whenever we created a report, based on any one of several templates. I set that up donkey's years ago, possibly as far back as the early 2000s.

Fast forward to now and I can't replicate that behaviour on my home machine, running Win 10 Pro and Word 2016. Yes, I can create a custom caption and it is available within that session but I can't get it to persist and still exist after I restart Word.

I thought custom captions were written into Normal.dotm but even if I open (as in actually open, not create a document from) Normal.dotm and create the custom caption and then save Normal.dotm, the custom caption is not available in a new document.

Any thoughts?

Ken

[HansV]

Press Alt+F11 to activate the Visual Basic Editor.
Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window.
Type the following line. or copy/paste it:

CaptionLabels.Add "APPENDIX"

With the insertion point in that line, press Enter.
Switch back to Word.
Quit Word.
If you're asked to save changes to the Normal template, answer Yes.

[stuck]

Thank you but that doesn't help.

I was prompted to save Normal.dotm and I can see in Explorer that the date / time stamp is 'now' but when I reopen Word, the custom caption label is not in the list

Ken

[HansV]

Weird - I have tested it (in Word in Microsoft 365) and it worked. I had to scroll up the list of captions to see the custom one.

[stuck]

Yes, it is weird, it's not at all what I expected. Perhaps it's because I've changed the file location my templates from the default, to point to a folder on my data drive?

I will go and see what happens on my Win 11 Pro laptop, which has MS 365.

As someone once said, "I'll be back".

Ken

[Charles Kenyon]

I think these are stored somewhere other than the Normal.dotm template. I looked in Word 2007 & Later Key Data File Locations (https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/136 ... tions.html) and found

Custom Label Definitions (2016 edit)
Custom label setups are stored in the folder %appdata%\Microsoft\Office in a file named pg_custom.xml. You can give this file to other users; they should store it in %appdata%\Microsoft\Office too. (Thank you HansV.)P\

Paul Edstein crediting you, Hans.

Perhaps this is mailing label definitions?

Here is my writing on custom labels, but it does not include the location.
https://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/c ... tom_Labels

[stuck]

Thank you Charles but there's no 'pg_custom.xml' anywhere under ...\AppData (yes, I've set Explorer to show hidden files). In fact, as yet, I've not found it anywhere on this machine.

Meanwhile, I've got round the problem...

On my Win 11 Pro laptop, which has MS 365, I was able to define a custom caption label via 'Insert Caption' on the 'References' tab, i.e. no need to use any VBA. That custom label behaved as I expected, it persisted across sessions.

Explorer showed the date/time stamp on Normal.dotm had updated to 'now' so I took a copy of that Normal.dotm and (via a USB stick) pasted it over the version of Normal.dotm on my Win 10 Pro desktop PC.

When I then opened the document in which I wanted to use this custom label, it was available. However, I had to recreate the existing instances of the custom captions (no hassle, only two captions involved) before I could then cross-refer to them.

So I've fixed my immediate problem but I don't think I've corrected the underlying cause of the problem. I suspect if I were to update Word 2016 on this Win 10 machine to MS 365 that would sort everything out. However, both Win 10 and Word 2016 reach end-of-life later this year so it doesn't seem worth the effort as I'm planning on replacing this machine in a few months time. I might try the repair option at at some point, but not today.

Thanks again,

Ken

[HansV]

Thanks, Charles, I had completely forgotten about that. The relevant post is this one

On the other hand, pg_custom.xml shows a last modified date in 2021, although I added a custom caption today...

[Charles Kenyon]

***
So I've fixed my immediate problem but I don't think I've corrected the underlying cause of the problem. I suspect if I were to update Word 2016 on this Win 10 machine to MS 365 that would sort everything out. However, both Win 10 and Word 2016 reach end-of-life later this year so it doesn't seem worth the effort as I'm planning on replacing this machine in a few months time. I might try the repair option at at some point, but not today.

Thanks again,

Ken

Hi Ken,

Just a side note that Word 2016 is still a good program. It should work fine on your new machine. There is little of significant difference between it and Word 2024 or Word 365, IMO. The end of life bit is just, IMO, Microsoft's way of getting you to send them more money.

I think the two best versions of Word are 2003 and 2010, both well past their support dates.
Disclaimer, I am currently using Microsoft 365 Family so that I con be current in my pontificationg. The only real improvement over 2010 from my point of view is the collapsing headings which came out with Word 2013. Some people don't like them, either. Especially when multiple users are on the subscription, Microsoft 365 is quite inexpensive. You can get a legit 15-month subscription for < $100 US through Costco.

[stuck]

Yes, Word 2016 is overkill for my trivial requirements these days but I'll switch to MS 365 simply because I can, at no upfront cost. My son has a family subscription, because it was a cost effective way of getting 1 TB of cloud storage, so I'm already using one of the six subscriptions (on my Win 11 laptop) that plan gives him.

There is of course an indirect cost as it's usually my credit card that pays for things when he comes home for a visit

Ken

[Charles Kenyon]

Another indirect cost is that you will have to put up with all the "improvements" that Microsoft thinks will sell.
For instance, see https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... 9dc1e2c26a and https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mso ... a73b184a1c.
Definitely do not get on the "insider program" unless you like frustration and pain. It is being an unpaid beta-tester.

[Jay Freedman]

There is of course an indirect cost as it's usually my credit card that pays for things when he comes home for a visit

We call that "the Bank of Dad".

[stuck]

We call that "the Bank of Dad"

Yes, and on one side of it is the Bank of Mum and on the other side there is the Bank of Mum and Dad

Ken