Hi everyone,

I frequently use inbuilt Word endnotes in very long documents as a referencing system, and where I need to re-refer to an existing reference, I use the cross-reference function (formatted superscript to match).

I use ctrl-A and F9 to update all cross-references manually as I go.

Today, I've noticed to my horror that the number for one of my endnotes isn't updating, in any place that I've cross-referenced to it. That is: I add a new endnote and all of the subsequent endnotes move up a number. But for reference 18, although it changes to 19, all of the existing crossreferences to it remain at 18. I have checked a handful of other cross-references and they appear to be updating fine and moving up a number to match where their endnote has moved to.

The '18's in question are not inside a text box, and are successfully being selected when I use ctrl-A.

Could this endnote be corrupted somehow? And how do I check whether it is the case for any others? These are big documents with many endnotes and crossreferences, so manually checking every single one is impossible. And I have lost track of which information came from where... I was relying on the endnotes to be accurate!

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.



Best, Sarah

Sarah
The way that cross-references work is that Word puts in a hidden bookmark around the source text. Then the cross-reference includes the name of that bookmark in the field code. What this means is you can redefine the bookmark to enclose the 19 instead of the 18. Then all the xrefs to the same bookmark will automatically update to point at the new location.

To fix the problem, reveal the field code on one of the xrefs and copy the bookmark name. The field code will look something like this {Ref _Ref12345678 \h}. Copy the _Ref12345678 text and then navigate to the location of the endnote which is now #19. Select that text and add a bookmark with the name you copied in the earlier step. Then just update the fields.

In some versions of Word you can't add a bookmark via the GUI if it starts with an underscore (ie it is a hidden bookmark). If this is the case with your version of Word you can add the bookmark via a line of VBA code or you can toggle all field codes and do a search/replace to change the bookmark name (in all the Ref fields) to something you can add via the GUI - and then set the bookmarked area with that name.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi Andrew,

Thanks - I really appreciate your help!

Is there any particular reason that an individual hidden bookmark would fail to update when others appear to be working ok? I've never seen it happen before so it can't be too common, I'm guessing. Maybe I've broken the hidden bookmark accidentally somehow whilst editing.

Is there any way to know that such a problem has emerged, other than to notice the failure for one cross-reference to update, and then manually check all the others? I'm a bit paranoid that something like this might happen and I might not realise it had happened and end up putting a document out for public consumption that is inaccurate in its referencing.

Thanks again,
Sarah

Bookmarks are fragile and can be broken. If you cross-reference to a note clicking on the number in the notes will not link back to the cross-reference source but the original note.


I generally tell Word to display bookmarks.


When you cross-reference, what, exactly, are you cross-referencing? How are you doing it? Are you picking the note number in the cross-reference dialog?

Thanks Charles. Yes, I like that the cross-reference takes you to the original note, because I want that original note to be the single source of truth for all places that refer to it, and then for it to update numerically if I add a new endnote before it.

How do you tell Word to display bookmarks? That sounds really useful! Thanks for the tip.

I am using the inbuilt Word endnote function to add scientific references at the end of a document, with in-text numbers that correspond. When I cross reference, it is because I don't want to re-add the details of the same article again in the list of scientific references, so instead I use the cross-reference function to refer to an endnote. In the dialogue I select Reference type: "Endnote" and Insert reference to: "Endnote number (formatted). I do this every time, so I'm not cross referencing from one in-text numeral to another: each time I'm cross referencing the endnote number.

I hope that makes sense!

Word can show manually added bookmarks but doesn't show them if they are 'hidden' (ie their name starts with "_". You show those bookmarks by going to File > Options > Advanced > Show document content > Show Bookmarks

I suspect the problem you encountered is because you inserted the new item by placing your cursor at the start of the line and pressing enter. Then you moved up to the new empty paragraph and added your new #18. This effectively expanded the bookmark to include both the #18 and #19 endnotes. What you SHOULD have done was to put your cursor at the end of the paragraph above and pressed enter. This would have inserted the new paragraph outside the bookmark.

If you set the option to show your bookmarks and add a manual bookmark you will see grey [square] brackets appear which show where that bookmark is. Now put your cursor at the position where that bookmark starts and see what happens when you insert content there (the new content is inside the bookmark). This is the opposite of what happens when you add content where the bookmark ends. This same behaviour is what happens with hidden bookmarks (but you just can't see them).

When you have a bookmark which includes multiple paragraphs, a cross-ref to that bookmark which asks for the paragraph number returns the number of the first paragraph only.

__________________
Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia