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Cross references in Word are accomplished through the use of Ref fields
linked to automatically generated _REF bookmarks. Unfortunately, one of the
many nagging weaknesses of Word is the fact that its bookmarks can be
stretched. If you have inserted a cross reference to a heading, and then
insert a page break before that heading, the bookmark surrounding the
heading will be extended to include the page break. One way to avoid this
from happening is to add the Page break before attribute to the heading
paragraph (Format | Paragraph | Line and Page Breaks). These breaks act like
"soft" or automatic breaks and will not become part of the bookmark and
therefore the cross reference.
I'm not sure about your second issue, but again, is it possible that your
reference has been extended by a stretched bookmark? BTW, bookmarks around a
paragraph can only be stretched in one direction -- towards the beginning of
the document. Although the bookmarks placed by Word are invisible, you can
test this by creating your own bookmark around a heading paragraph and
turning on Tools | Options | View | Bookmarks. You will note square brackets
surrounding the bookmarked selection. Now, place your cursor to the left of
the text and press Enter. The new paragraph before your heading will be
contained within the bookmark. Type text in this paragraph, and it will also
be contained in the bookmark range. If this had been a bookmark created by
Word to support cross references, and you updated your cross reference (F9),
you would now see the extended reference including this new paragraph and
text.
Nasty stuff, but it has been like that since Word for Windows 1.0. Happily,
I no longer have to worry about this when using Doc-To-Help to prepare my
printed documentation. This authoring tool now contains routines for finding
and fixing stretched bookmarks in Word.
Regards,
Paul Neshamkin
pauln -at- helpauthors -dot- com
WexTech MVP, Certified Doc-To-Help Consultant/Trainer
Microsoft HTML Help MVP
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-20560 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-20560 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Eli Marcus
> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 9:57 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Word cross-ref problems
>
>
> Anyone out there encountered the following glitch in the cross reference
> function in Word 97?
>
> After creating perfectly normal cross references to items in the document,
> upon returning to the page with the reference field, I find a
> page break in
> the middle of the reference field.
> Another similar phenomenon is the sudden insertion of the whole paragraph
> that the reference points to, for example, in a table cell where the cross
> reference was used.
> Any ideas? Tips? Remedy? (this never happens in Frame!!!)
>
> Eli Marcus
> RADVision Ltd.
> (03) 765 9932
> Elim -at- tlv -dot- radvision -dot- com
