Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 2, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
One WordTips reader expressed a desire to number the various equations appearing in his document. The desire was to have the equation be centered on the page, and the equation's number appear at the right margin within brackets. When a new equation is added to the document, the subsequent equations should be renumbered.
There are a number of ways you can approach this problem, but the possible solutions can be broken down into two general methods. The first method accomplishes the numbering using a combination of tables and fields, and the second uses tabs and fields. If you want to use the table approach, you can do so as follows:
Figure 1. The Field dialog box.
If you want to use tabs to accomplish the same task, you can easily do that, as well. For instance, let's say you are using 8.5 x 11 paper, with 1-inch left and right margins. In this case, you would follow these steps:
Figure 2. The Tabs dialog box.
The advantage of using the tab method (as just described) is that you can define a paragraph style that already has the two tab stops set. You can then format any paragraph with the style, and simply type your information. You can take it one step further and also save the brackets and sequence field as an AutoText entry. In this way you could very quickly enter your sequence numbers.
When you add new equations in the middle of your document, it is very possible that not all of your subsequent equations will automatically increment. If you want to make sure that all the sequence numbers are correct, you can select the entire document and press F9 to update the fields.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (273) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
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