Great solution. There is now one other (much more minor) problem. Using your
recommended approach, I now have a two-column one-row table with the equation
in the left cell and the label caption in the right cell. If I want the
equation in the right cell to be right aligned to the page margin but with
leadings "dots" from the equation in the left cell to the caption, this will
mean that the left hand cell will need to be a different width depending on
how wide the equation is, otherwise the dots start in the middle of nowhere.
Is there any way to get the "look" of dots leading from the equation across
to the label, without having to manually resize each cell for each equation?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

When you put an equation label on the same line with the equation, it is in
the same paragraph, so Word sees the whole thing as the caption. One way
around this is to use a two-column, single-row borderless table. Put the
equation in one cell and the caption in the other.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
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"Bandicoot" wrote in message
...
I have created a custom type of caption label called "equation". I then
create equations in Word 2003 (often using Equation editor) and then
insert
the equation caption on the same line (right aligned to a tab on that line
with leading dots).
In other parts of the document I then want to be able to say "See equation
12" (or whatever). If I try to insert a cross-reference to equation 12 to
do
this automatically, I end up with the entire equation as well as the label
being inserted, even if I only ask for the 'only label and number' to be
inserted. I can achieve the same effect by selecting the equation label
and
then creating a bookmark and then using the cross-refernece feature to the
bookmark, but this is clumsy and means lots of bookmarks, etc. Is there
some
way to create a cross-reference to a user-defined caption label in this
fashion?