[Distractabledude]

I have several chapters filled with figures and tables, which are imported as
pictures from other programs into Word 2003. Each image has a caption, added
manually in Word and most images are referenced by several cross-references
using the appropriate Word feature (so that references to Figure 5
automatically shift to become references to Figure 6 if I insert another
Figure earlier in the chapter).

My problem is that if I decide I need to change a Figure/Table in my program
outside Word (like Excel or Tableau), then when I delete the existing image
and re-import the replacement image, I have to recreate the caption and redo
all the cross-references (which will now display an error message like
"REFERENCED IMAGE NOT FOUND"). This isn't a big deal to fix once or twice but
I need to do this all the time and would like to make the process as easy as
possible.

So, any suggestions on how I can replace a figure while maintaining its
current caption and all the cross-references to it?

I currently have my images inserted into the document directly. Should I try
to have the images dynamically inserted so I could just replace them in their
file folder? (I have not tried to do this but if necessary, I could go this
route.)