Formatting Ref fields to look like hyperlinks

[BonnieB]

I am using Word 2003. I have cross-references in a document (Ref fields)
that I created either by inserting Table of Contents and Table of Figures, or
by using Insert->Reference->Cross-Reference. In the Word doc, I can control
whether the fields appear shaded or not.

But, what I really want is for these Ref fields to appear in blue underlined
text to indicate that they are hyperlinks that the reader can follow. Most
readers will read the document in pdf format. I am using RoboHelp to convert
the doc to pdf, which converts all the hyperlinks. Right now, the pdf file
includes no visual cue that text is a link to follow.

In Word, I've even tried applying the hyperlink character style to the text.
The style shows as applied, but the text still doesn't appear blue and
underlined.

THanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Well, this is a long way around, but it appears to work. I suggest you test
it on a COPY.

Toggle Field Codes (alt-F9) so that the cross-references show up as {REF
some number}

Go to Find and Replace. Put ^19 REF in the Find field. Put the cursor in
the Replace field, click More to expand the dialog, and use the Format menu
at the bottom of the dialog to format the empty Replace box as you want the
cross-references to look.

Replace All.

Toggle Field Codes.

Post back with results.

 

[BonnieB]

Daiya,

First, thanks for the fast response. Your workaround fixed all but my very
first Ref field, which is a cross-reference to Figure 1. All the other
figures and other types of cross references changed to the formatting I
specified.

What does ^19 represent? I'm trying to determine how my Figure 1 cross-ref
differs from the others.

Also, will this workaround also work to change the formatting for the links
to the Table of Contents and Table of Figures fields that Word inserts?

 

[BonnieB]

The workaround works like a charm on all my in-text cross-references.

I figured out that ^19 is the code for a curly brace. And, I tried looking
for ^19 TOC to convert the table of contents to the hyperlink formatting. It
applies the formatting to the leader lines and the page numbers but not to
the heading names of figures in the Table of Figures. Is there a way to have
those appear as hyperlinks? I suppose I could just include text that tells
the reader than the TOC includes hyperlinks.

 

[stman]

Well, this is an old thread that I found by searching, but I wonder if anyone
had any new information on the subject. The workaround is not ideal. What I'm
wondering is why the character formatting doesn't show up in the first place.

For example, in a Table of Contents, the page numbers are just fields, but
the headings are fields + formatted with the Hyperlink character style (use
Reveal Formatting to see this). But they're not blue underlined.

Why the %@#$* not?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

The formatting in a Table of Contents is controlled by TOC styles. You
could redefine TOC1, TOC2, TOC3, etc, to be blue and hyperlinked, I
suppose. Test on a COPY of your doc.

You might want to read about controlling how the TOC looks, first--see here:

TOC Tips and Tricks
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/TOCTips.htm

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Because Word suppresses the display/printing of the Hyperlink character
style for TOCs and cross-references in documents it assumes you will be
printing. The presence of a TOC with page numbers suggests a printed
document. Most people don't want these hyperlinks to be blue and underlined
in a printed document. This is one of those cases where MS made a decision
based on majority user demand, the results of which do not suit all users.

 

[stman]

Yes, that makes sense. So I can create my own hyperlink character style and
apply it to individual cross references in the document.

Also read your TOC information mentioned in the previous post, and I want to
thank you for writing that very complete and HELPFUL article.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm glad you found the article helpful. I confess I found the suppressed
hyperlink formatting confusing the first time I encountered it. Even more
perverse is that if you unlink a TOC, the individual entries still have the
TOC styles, and the Hyperlink character style is "unsuppressed" so they are
now blue and underlined even though they're not actually hyperlinked any
more!

Wrt applying a custom character style to the TOC entries and
cross-references, ISTR that the last time we tried this, it turned out that
the style is removed when you update the field, but I could be remembering
wrong.

 

[stman]

I think that instead of suppressing the Hyperlink character style (an easy
way to confuse people), they could have added a print option (in Word 2003,
Tools > Options > Print tab OR File > Print > Options button) with something
like “Hide hyperlink formattingâ€.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I agree there are probably better ways to handle it. Perhaps the next
version will offer something different.