How to?: Hyperlinks with text derived from bookmarks that work in

[Brian Kramer]

I've experimented extensively with the REF and HYPERLINK fields and I am
stumped.

Here is my scenario:

I am using the SEQ field to generate the auto-numbered text: "Example 1,"
"Example 2," and so on. Auto-numbering is a requirement since things move
around a lot. In particular, my auto-numbered fields are accomplished with {
SEQ Example \# "E'x'ample 0 }, where Example is the name of the SEQ and
"E'x'ample 0" generates the corresponding text.

On some of these I surround the text with a bookmark. e.g. Bk_SomeExample
might be a bookmark around the field-generated text "Example 3."

In various places, I insert cross-reference fields (REF) that hyperlink to
these bookmarks. e.g. the text "See Example 3" is done with "See { REF
Bk_SomeExample \h }" where the \h flag enables the hyperlink to the paragraph
containg the bookmark.

So far so good for a Word document. When viewed within Word itself, this
gives me autonumbered examples with hyperlinks to them.

The document is being saved as HTML. When opening in Internet Explorer 6.0.
the hyperlinks do not work. This appears to be because { REF ... } fields
don't translate into hyperlinks that are honored by IE.

If I instead use { HYPERLINK ... } fields, then I.E. is honors them. But
then I no longer have the ability to use bookmarks to specify the text of the
hyperlink. For example, I do not want to have to go through all my {
HYPERLINK ... } fields to manually change "See Example 3" to "See Example 4"
if some new example was inserted into my document!

So in summary, I am in much need of a solution that allows me to create
hyperlinks whose text is not constant value, but rather given by a bookmark,
and that that hyperlink is honored by Internet Explorer.

Thank you in advance for your help,

Brian

 

[Brian Kramer]

I have not received any replies. Is anyone brave enough to say "it is not
possible in Word to do this?"

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's impossible, but I think you're running
up against some of the limitations of Word for Web authoring. I can only
suggest that you wait till editing is complete before you insert hyperlinks,
so that the numbering won't change.

 

[Brian Kramer]

Thanks, Suzanne. I'm pretty convinced that you're right. To MS: The
limitation would easily lifted with, as it seems to me, some extra but minor
design work.

I'm in contact with PSS about this issue. I am going to suggest that the
next version of Word does the following:

1. HYPERLINK fields have explicit switches for both the reference and the
text. Don't hide the hyperlink text from me when I press Alt-F9. For any
switch value, nested fields such as REF should work. The Edit Hyperlink...
command should merely be a GUI wrapper like Edit Field... command is (i.e.
equivalent to editing under Alt-F9).

2. The behavior of the REF field with the \h switch is preserved in the
browser.