Goodmorning to you all.
This is my first post on MS Word forum.
I have a big problem with cross-references. I'm a technical writer and I'm used to write mechanical manuals with a lot of headings, pictures and so on. I wanted to test the cross references but I found immediately a big "bug" on them.

Simply, I insert a cross reference to a specific chapter or sub-chapter... but then if I had to modify my manual and maybe insert a new chapter in-between the one I had cross-referenced, then using F9 to update the reference it continues pointing to the old X.X.X chapter. I'm used to number my chapter and so I use cross-references to Heading... but I always have this problem and so, for the moment, the cross-reference are for me useless at all.

If someone has some suggestion, I'd really appreciate it a lot.

Many thanks in advance,


Andrea Colussi
Italy

Cross-references in Word make use of hidden bookmarks. There is a limitation with bookmarks in Word which means that if you press Enter, or type in text, at the beginning of a bookmarked paragraph, you are actually adding content within the bookmark. Obviously, this is going to mess up the bookmark—and therefore the cross-reference as well. The workaround is to always add new content at the end of a bookmarked paragraph.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Stefan,
thanks for the reply. I understand to add or modify the bookmarked paragraph only at its end, but if I have to add a new chapter or paragraph before the bookmarked one... this is another problem, since the reference points again to the same X.X.X heading and don't increment its bookmark accordingly to the new Y.Y.Y heading... this is my main problem, due to I'm editing manuals with numbered headings and sometimes happens that I have to insert new paragraphs and so the next cross-references should update its reference accordingly... so in my case you mean that I shouldn't use cross-reference at all?!? Maybe in future MS will fix this thing? Perhaps with Word 2013???

Thanks again for your prompt reply

In cases where it isn't possible to add new content "correctly" (from Word's perspective), you can always delete the messed up cross-reference and recreate it.

Just to be clear, note that you must always force an update of Word's cross-references. Switching to Print Preview and back to your previous view works fine (use Ctrl+F2 followed by ESC). To explicitly update selected fields, press F9.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Probably I didn't explain me well... so a video would be the best thing to show you my problem:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resi...4C71D7F934!299

Regards and thanks again


Andrea Colussi

When you add a paragraph at the beginning of a bookmarked (cross-referenced) paragraph, the bookmark expands to include the new text. In other words, your cross-reference now points to the new heading added, which is why the number is incorrect and can't be updated. In such a case, you will have to delete the cross-reference and reinsert it. Are you saying that recreating the reference doesn't work for you?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional