I have twelve book chapters with figures numbered this way.
For reasons known only to a few people in San Jose, InDesign numbers things like figures in the order that the frame containing the number is added to the document, and not in "reading order." I understand that's the reality.
That means if one purposely or accidentally adds a new numbered figure to an InDesign document, it will get numbered one higher than the last figure, no matter where in the document it is placed. I understand that reality, too.
Now for the question: If I need to insert a figure other than after the last one, or rearrange figures, is there a way to put the numbering in reading order other than cutting each frame containing a number, pasting them into a separate document, then finally pasting them back into the original document in the proper order? That works, but is both time-consuming and fiddly. If you make a mistake, you have to start over again from the point of the mistake.
Is there a better way?
Update: Here's the requested screen shot. I've made it nearly full size so one can see what's what. This is the first page of the chapter, so the figure should be numbered 4-1, and it used to be. I replaced the photo and now it's numbered 4-13.
I've placed the images by drawing an image frame of the proper size, placing the image in the frame, then cutting and pasting into the text. That makes an anchored object (you knew that!) which I set as "custom" and plop it where I want it. I do the same thing with a text frame that holds figure number and caption. There may very well be a better way to do this, but I am very new to InDesign, and a appreciate the help.
