Cross-referrences to heading text come un-anchored

[rob]

Word 2000 SP3 on an XP Pro SP2 machine.

In my document, I have numerous cross-references to other points in the same
document. My cross-references are almost always to headings by heading text,
and using the "insert as hyperlink" option. I then go about editing my
document in and around those links, as per usual. What I find is that the
links continuously - but infuriatingly enough not consistently - seem to lose
track of the beginning of the point to which they are meant to be linked; a
link to a heading now becomes a link to the heading and the 3 or 4 lines
before the heading, and inserts all 4-5 lines as the link text. They mostly
seem to come un-anchored when I close the document and re-open it, though
using Update Felds will sometimes cause it to happen without closing the
document; I presume this means that the links are coming un-anchored as I
work, but the effects don't show up til the fields are updated. In testing
under more controlled circumstances I haven't been able to reproduce the
problem... anyone recognise it?

 

[Stefan Blom]

Cross-references depend on hidden bookmarks inserted around the
referenced text. These bookmarks can easily "grow" to have more text
than desired, depending on how you insert new paragraphs before a
bookmarked one: If you press ENTER at the beginning of a bookmarked
paragraph, the newly created paragraph will be included in the
bookmark.

The safe method to add a paragraph before a bookmarked one is to press
ENTER at the end of the *previous* paragraph.

To restore a bookmark to point to the correct paragraph, you can do
the following: Select the correct target and then choose Bookmark on
the Insert menu. Check the "Hidden bookmarks" option and then click
the "Location" option. Word highlights the bookmark name. Click Add,
which will redefine the bookmark to point to the correct item.

 

[rob]

Thanks Stefan!

I take it - since you didn't mention it - that there isn't any way to get
the boundaries of these hidden bookmarks to appear in the text in the same
way that non-hidden bookmarks can be made visible? It would certainly make
navigating around them easier...

- rob.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you could see them, they wouldn't be hidden, would they? <g> Like you,
though, I wish there were some way to make them more obvious.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Thanks Stefan!

Glad I could help.

I take it - since you didn't mention it - that there isn't any way to get
the boundaries of these hidden bookmarks to appear in the text in the same
way that non-hidden bookmarks can be made visible? It would certainly make
navigating around them easier...

If you want your bookmarks to be visible, you'll have to insert them
yourself (via Insert>Bookmark); you can control the display of
manual bookmarks on the View tab of Tools>Options.

Then insert your cross-references from the Bookmark category in the
Cross-Reference dialog box.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

No promises, but someone once sent me a macro with this line in it. Stefan,
you're usually good at VBA, do you think this might work?

ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = True

Running it *might* turn them on, though I would test on a copy. I don't have
time/any hidden bookmarks around currently to test it myself.

DM

 

[Stefan Blom]

Unfortunately, no. Setting the ShowHidden property to TRUE means that
hidden bookmarks are visible in the Bookmark dialog box (and in the
Bookmarks collection when using VBA).

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Ah well. thanks, Stefan.

Unfortunately, no. Setting the ShowHidden property to TRUE means that
hidden bookmarks are visible in the Bookmark dialog box (and in the
Bookmarks collection when using VBA).