Insert cross reference like copy and paste

gdsgssy · #1 05-19-2021, 08:12 AM

I made a tool called HandyRef with VBA that provides a handy way to insert Cross Reference in MS Word, just like copy and paste. "Copy" what you want to reference and "paste" it at the point where cross reference is needed. HandyRef abandons the long list for selecting reference items that MS Word uses and greatly speeds up the cross-reference process. HandyRef provides Ribbon and keyboard shortcut for the user. Picture below shows the Ribbon that integrated in MS Word "Reference" Ribbon tab. By the way, HandyRef is open-source. Details and code can be found at Github

Guessed · #2 05-19-2021, 04:36 PM

Your code is similar in principle to how I've done it on my templates. So I will suggest a couple of other things you may not have considered yet.

In our documents, often we want to refer to the heading outline number rather than the text. So when the selection.range is empty, rather than producing a warning to first select text, I create an xRef to the paragraph number (by including '\n' in the ref field code) and add a prefix (eg. Section X)

Secondly, when testing to see if a bookmark already exists in the same range, you don't need to compare it to every bookmark in the document - you should compare it to every bookmark that included that range.

Code:

    'search for existing bookmark reference the same range
    'doc.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = True  'this isn't needed for the loop
    For Each bmi In rg.Bookmarks
        If bmi.Range.IsEqual(rg) Then
            Set oldbm = bmi
            Exit For
        End If
    Next bmi
    'doc.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = False  'this can annoy users who want it on

gdsgssy · #3 05-19-2021, 07:25 PM

Thank you for you suggestion

. I have changed the code to add bookmarks into range instead of document. To keep it simple, I don't want to add the function inserting reference to heading outline number right now. Thank you again

.

Code:

    Dim oldbm As Bookmark
    Dim bmi As Bookmark
    Dim bmShowHiddenOld As Boolean
    bmShowHiddenOld = rg.Bookmarks.ShowHidden
    
    'search for existing bookmark reference the same range
    rg.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = True
    For Each bmi In rg.Bookmarks
        If bmi.Range.IsEqual(rg) And bmi.Name Like BookmarkPrefix & "#*" Then
            Set oldbm = bmi
            Exit For
        End If
    Next bmi
    rg.Bookmarks.ShowHidden = bmShowHiddenOld

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