Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Deleting Caption Labels.

Deleting Caption Labels

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 26, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

The captioning feature of Word allows you to define custom labels for use in your captions. After a time, you may not need a particular caption label any more. To remove a caption label, follow these steps:

Display the Caption dialog box. (Choose Insert | Caption or Insert | Reference | Caption, depending on your version of Word.) (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Caption dialog box.

Using the Label drop-down list, choose the label you want to delete.
Click on Delete Label. The label is immediately deleted.
Click on Cancel to dismiss the Caption dialog box.

Remember that these steps allow you to delete custom caption labels—ones you created on your own, previously. You cannot delete any of the built-in caption labels. If you select a built-in caption label in step 2, then Word keeps the Delete Label button grayed out, as shown in the figure.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (894) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Deleting Caption Labels.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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