Cross-references on same page

[Gilda Spitz <Gilda_Spitz -at- MARKHAM -dot- LONGVIEW -dot- CA>]

I've searched the TechWr-l archive for this topic, and couldn't find
anything. If I've missed it, please forgive me.

In our Frame documents, we use the automated cross-reference feature quite
often, using the sentence "For more information, see [Topic2] on page
[whatever]".  Sometimes Topic2 appears on the same page as the
cross-reference sentence. If so, we get a ridiculous-looking sentence on,
say, page 25, telling our user to "... see [Topic2] on page 25". Several
readers have complained about this.

Because  we keep fiddling with the documents until the last minute, we
never know how the pagination is going to turn out. A while ago, I asked
Adobe if there was some special variable or something that would solve the
problem, and they said "No, but it's a good idea"!  The only fix I can see
is to wait until just before print-time, check each cross-ref one by one,
and then change the problematic ones to "...see [Topic2] below" or just
"... see [Topic2]".

But that seems to be such a big task for such a small payoff. And of
course, you just know that right after you do it, you'll have to make
another change that affects pagination! I hate using the word "below"
unless I'm positive the item really is "below", and not on the next page.
And if I omit "below" altogether, it's even more confusing if Topic2 is
elsewhere.

So my decision has been to ignore the issue, but I'm wondering if that's
the correct approach. What do other tech writers do about this? Is there an
easy fix that I'm missing?

Gilda Spitz
Manager, Documentation and Translation
Longview Solutions, Inc.

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