Word 2013 cross referencing issue: ‘cross-reference’ pop-up window menu does not appear

microsoft wordmicrosoft-word-2013

I am a long time Word user and have used the cross-reference feature on previous Word versions (2010, 2003) without issues. This is not the case anymore after moving to Word 2013 recently.

The problem persists and I cannot determine if this is a hardware related issue or something that can be fixed within MS Word.

At seemingly random times, the Cross-Reference pop-up window menu does not appear. For clarity, the image below shows the pop-up window that appears (Yes, I know that looks like Word 2010; this is not my image.)

Cross-Reference pop-up window

After clicking the Cross-Reference option in References/Captions, the scroll bars flash and nothing happens. This issue is resolved by restarting Word and the opening the same file.

I am curious if anyone is having similar issues, or knows of a way to resolve this. I am flummoxed.

A screenshot of the issue that is described above.

enter image description here

Pre-click is the top screenshot, and during-click is bottom. After the click, everything reverts to pre-click image.

EDIT 1: The issue turned out to be related to multiple monitors, which isn't mentioned in the question. Try below resolution if you are having related problems.

Best Answer

Upon lots of trial and error, I have finally stumbled on the solution. No research/literature/references/sources to provide here, just experience.

The fix is:

  1. Close all instances of Word that are running, including other non-problem Word documents.
  2. Open up the problem Word document, but before clicking on the references, make sure this document is located in another monitor, not the same monitor you just used.
    • As for background info, I have 3 monitors total attached to my laptop (1 laptop display, 2 external monitors). I was trying to do my Word work in the largest of these displays, and was getting this ghost References error. However, when I had the .doc open in another window and hit the References button, the Reference pop-up window appeared fine on another monitor.
  3. Check that references option again. The pop-up box should now appear in one of your monitors!

I hope this is helpful for others experiencing this in the future! Message me if you have questions.

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