Control numbering of captions in Microsoft Word

Solution 1:

Have you checked your anchors? I came across the following which explains how that can wreak havoc with the figure numbering: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-word/automatic-label-numbers-for-figures-are-coming-out/3f5e6f11-84f6-42b0-9b36-b3d99c1c00da

Solution 2:

I eventually fixed it by swapping the location of each caption (dragging them around to where I wanted them) and then editing the descriptive text following Figure _ to be appropriate. While effective, this seems like a hack. I will not be accepting this answer, but include it here in case it helps someone else.