Cross references get corrupted when I moved text in outline mode?

[Ella Davis]

I have a large Word 2003 document (450 pages) that is a user manual. It uses
consistent header styles throughout. It also has many cross references, which
say stuff like See "title of some section" on page "num" for more information.

I inserted these cross references using the Insert -> Reference ->
Cross-reference command, and choosing a Heading as the reference type, and I
insert it as a hyperlink.

All was fine until today, when I went into outline mode and moved sections
all around.

Now, my text reads normal for a while, and then gets to "See title..." and
instead of the title of the section, it includes a whole glob of text from
that page, except it's not even the same section because stuff is moved
around. This glob of text is gray, as my fields are usually displayed. I can
Toggle Field Code, and I see "See "{REF _Ref90871479 \h |*MERGEFORMAT }" in
heading 2 style.

Anybody have any idea what is going on or what I should do? I'm afraid to
just delete this text because I think I'll lose track of what cross-reference
I meant to be there.

Thanks!
Ella Davis
Vector Software

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RWxsYSBEYXZpcw==?=,

When you create a cross-reference, Word places a bookmark around the text. In
this case, for example, it selects the entire paragraph formatted with Heading 2
and bookmarks it - invisibly.

If you would then position the IP at the beginning of such a paragraph and press
ENTER, all the new text you type would be entered within the bookmark, and thus
be picked up by the cross-reference.

Something like this happened when you moved stuff around in the Outline view.

About all you can do, short of deleting and recreating the cross-reference,
would be to
1. determine which bookmark name the cross-reference is (select the field and
use Shift+F9 to toggle the field code); it will be something like _Ref#########.

2. Insert/Bookmark, click "Hidden bookmarks" a couple of times, until all these
_Ref and _Toc bookmarks show up.

3. Find that bookmark, click "GoTo".

4. Change the selection to include ONLY the heading, then Insert/Bookmark, make
sure this bookmark is selected, and click "Add".

I have a large Word 2003 document (450 pages) that is a user manual. It uses
consistent header styles throughout. It also has many cross references, which
say stuff like See "title of some section" on page "num" for more information.

I inserted these cross references using the Insert -> Reference ->
Cross-reference command, and choosing a Heading as the reference type, and I
insert it as a hyperlink.

All was fine until today, when I went into outline mode and moved sections
all around.

Now, my text reads normal for a while, and then gets to "See title..." and
instead of the title of the section, it includes a whole glob of text from
that page, except it's not even the same section because stuff is moved
around. This glob of text is gray, as my fields are usually displayed. I can
Toggle Field Code, and I see "See "{REF _Ref90871479 \h |*MERGEFORMAT }" in
heading 2 style.

Anybody have any idea what is going on or what I should do? I'm afraid to
just delete this text because I think I'll lose track of what cross-reference
I meant to be there.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Ella Davis]

Cindy
thank you for your response. You are amazing, to know stuff like this. I
think what I'll do is change the glob of text into the Field code, so that it
is small, then figure out from my old copies of the document what book mark
that was supposed to be, and then just re-insert it. At first, I was so taken
aback by all the weird text, that I couldn't tell whether I should just
delete it or what. But now I understand. Thanks again.

Just curious -- what is IP?
Ella

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

IP = insertion point (where the cursor is currently located).