References to LINE NUMBERS

[Chris Lott]

I'm preparing a specification document, in which the main body
contains a number of requirements (typically identified by the verb
"shall" in the sentence). In the last section of the document, I need
to include a section on testing each of the previous requirements.
Since there can be multiple "shalls" in a paragraph, and there isn't
necessarily a "shall" in every paragraph, I want to reference each
"shall" requirement by the document LINE NUMBER (and I have enabled
the display of line numbers in the document).

I see various options for referencing within a document by PARAGRAPH
number, but not by line number.

I would like to use the built-in reference functions, so these testing
tables do not have to be updated manually whenever document changes
are made. Also, it would be nice to be able to include a brief text
description for each bookmark (for lack of a better term) that can be
displayed in the later reference along with the line number.

I am running Windows XP Pro with Office 2003 (Word 2003).

-Chris Lott
(e-mail address removed)
Huntsville, Alabama

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Chris

As far as I know, Word does not provide any functionality to create
cross-references to a line number.

One reason for that is that Word does not have a fixed concept of a
line. It lives by paragraphs, and adjusts line breaks on the fly,
according to various things including paper size and printer driver. So
a particular line might change if you sent your document to someone who
uses American Letter sized paper when you use A4 (or vice versa), or if
you change printer drivers. For more information about that, see: Why
has my page layout changed when I open my document on a different
machine?
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/TextReflow.htm

So, you might be better off using cross-references to paragraph numbers,
and perhaps ensuring that every paragraph of the spec includes one, and
only one, requirement that must, therefore, be tested.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

 

[Chris Lott]

Shauna:

Thanks for the help. I don't think I agree with your reasoning, but I
have no doubt that your conclusion is correct. In my version of Word
(2003), it certainly *does* have a concept of line numbers - I can
have them displayed in the document. And I would think that a
reference to line number would be easily updated when you change page
sizes, just as when you insert extra text when editing the document.
Changing paper size to say legal 8-1/2x14 wouldn't change my line
numbers at all, but I can see how changing to A4 would cause lines to
be re-adjusted.

Also, due to the nature of this document, it will never be distributed
as the source Word document, but rather as a .PDF file. Thererfore, I
will have explicit control of the page size on which I print it. I
may have to prepare two different PDF's, one with A4 and another with
A size (8-1/2x11).

I thought this was a common word processing need in the legal field,
perhaps I can research this angle further. Thanks again for the
comments.

-Chris Lott
(e-mail address removed)
Huntsville, AL

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACT]

Hi Chris,

The concept of line numbers is and entirely different thing to concept of
lines. The content of a line may vary dependent upon printer/printer drive
combination.

Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.
Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Chris,

Perhaps it's simply a feature that the programmers didn't think worthwhile
to include.

After all, pages are created on the fly, too, and are also dependent on the
printer driver...

But there's no problem to include references to some page.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Chris Lott]

Very well, in any event the feature I need is not available. Is it
possible instead to insert an automatically generated sequential
number reference beside each "shall", and then reference that number
in a later section? For example:

The widget shall [103] perform tap dancing on the head of a needle....

(later in the document

Testing of requirement [103] is to be performed by...


I am in search of a solution where these numbers are generated
automatically, and the references in the later section are locked to
the original sentence, and don't have to be re-entered manually
whenever additional sentences are added in the first section of the
document (that is, intervening sequential numbers are added, forcing
the numbering to change). I don't mind that an update process must be
invoked when such changes are made.

Any thoughts?

-Chris Lott

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Any text that is bookmarked can be cross-referenced, so you could insert a
SEQ field and bookmark it. Of course what would be really nice would be
something that was bookmarked automatically, like a caption. Unfortunately
captions, though numbered automatically, require a "label," which must be
followed by a space, so that feature would not work here. I believe,
however, that LISTNUM numbering *is* bookmarked automatically (that is, the
numbers show up under "numbered items" in Insert | Cross-reference), so you
might try that (the drawback being that it seems always to be followed by a
parenthesis).

Very well, in any event the feature I need is not available. Is it
possible instead to insert an automatically generated sequential
number reference beside each "shall", and then reference that number
in a later section? For example:

The widget shall [103] perform tap dancing on the head of a needle....

(later in the document

Testing of requirement [103] is to be performed by...


I am in search of a solution where these numbers are generated
automatically, and the references in the later section are locked to
the original sentence, and don't have to be re-entered manually
whenever additional sentences are added in the first section of the
document (that is, intervening sequential numbers are added, forcing
the numbering to change). I don't mind that an update process must be
invoked when such changes are made.

Any thoughts?

-Chris Lott



"Klaus Linke" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Hi Chris,

Perhaps it's simply a feature that the programmers didn't think worthwhile
to include.

After all, pages are created on the fly, too, and are also dependent on the
printer driver...

But there's no problem to include references to some page.

Regards,
Klaus

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Chris

Here's one way to do it. It's a two-step process, and it will slow down
a lot if you have many such references. But it will give you what you
want.

After the first "shall", do ctrl-F9 and, within the braces that Word
gives you, type
SEQ shall \# "[0]" \* MERGEFORMAT

There's more information about how the SEQ field works in Word's help.
Since adding the SEQ field will be tedious, do it once and assign it to
an AutoText for easy insertion next time.

Select the whole field, including the braces, and choose Insert >
Bookmark. Give your bookmark a name (not the number, which might
change).

Where you want the reference, do Insert > Reference > Cross Reference.
In Reference Type, choose Bookmark. In the Insert Reference To box,
choose Bookmark Text. Select the appropriate bookmark, and click Insert.

Note that you can't type the {} braces by hand. You must use ctrl-F9 and
type between the braces that Word inserts for you. Once you've typed the
field, use F9 to update it, or ctrl-a F9 to update all fields in the
document.

It would be a good idea to do Tools > Options > View and set Field
Shading to either "Always" or "When Selected". And, at Tools > Options >
Print, tick the "Update Fields" box.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

Very well, in any event the feature I need is not available. Is it
possible instead to insert an automatically generated sequential
number reference beside each "shall", and then reference that number
in a later section? For example:

The widget shall [103] perform tap dancing on the head of a needle....

(later in the document

Testing of requirement [103] is to be performed by...


I am in search of a solution where these numbers are generated
automatically, and the references in the later section are locked to
the original sentence, and don't have to be re-entered manually
whenever additional sentences are added in the first section of the
document (that is, intervening sequential numbers are added, forcing
the numbering to change). I don't mind that an update process must be
invoked when such changes are made.

Any thoughts?

-Chris Lott



"Klaus Linke" <[email protected]> wrote in message

Hi Chris,

Perhaps it's simply a feature that the programmers didn't think worthwhile
to include.

After all, pages are created on the fly, too, and are also dependent on the
printer driver...

But there's no problem to include references to some page.

Regards,
Klaus