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Hi,
I'm having some issues with Word bookmarks reformatting when exported to pdf.
I have a date bookmarked which I've formatted with "th" as a superscript: 13th October 2019
I reference this bookmark in several places in the document, using the following reference: { REF VB_date \h \* MERGEFORMAT }
As it happens, the refences have a different format, (smaller font and without bold). This new format remains in place each time I update the link EXCEPT the "th" superscript reverts to normal text.
I then manual reformat each reference to return the superscript.
This is annoying and if anyone knows a way to stop this, I'd love to hear it.
My main problem though is that this reformatting also happens when I'm exporting or saving the file to pdf AND when I try to print the Word document. Every time I save or export to pdf or print, the reference remains unbolded and in the smaller font, but I lose the superscript so the pdf and printout looks like:
Nothing I've tried works aside from breaking the link. Is there a way of stopping this from happening?
Thanks,
Jackson
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
For the cross-reference field to preserve the formatting of each individual text character, you have to remove the \* MERGEFORMAT switch.
If you want the cross-reference to include the superscript, only, ensure that the target text is formatted with a paragraph style. Any direct formatting (not just superscript), applied via the Home tab or the Font dialog box, will be reflected in the cross-reference.
Actually, now I'm back where I started. Without the MERGEFORMAT switch, every time I update the bookmark, all references change their format to completely match the bookmark rather than keeping the formatting that I want. So maybe it's not possible.
It seems either the references look exactly like the bookmark. Or I can apply some custom formatting, but any super/sub scripts aren't maintained when the field is updated. Does that sound right?
I can't actually work out bookmarks are supposed to work.
This makes no sense to me. The formatting is inconsistent. Without mergeformat the colour and sub/super script is maintained, but the font size to changed to a uniform size. It's not even preserved from the original. With mergeformat, the format is customised, but won't maintain sub/superscripts when updated. This makes no sense to me at all. Why are all the references without MERGEFORMAT shown in size 10 font when the original is 28?
This just gest weirder. It seems that the order of operations and update makes a difference. I changed the colour, type face and size of the source and now all references without MERGEFORMAT perfectly match it.
I can't get back to the state where the font and size didn't match the bookmark.
You are welcome.
Oh wow, now I feel stupid. When I first inserted the cross reference it preserved the format of the bookmark so I thought I had to include that switch to allow me to change the formatting. Damn. My bad. Thanks a lot for your quick and simple fix.