cross-reference updates to 0

Question

Hi,

I am in the midst of editing a large document with many cross-references (to numbered paragraphs) and I'm constantly adding\deleting. When I update the cross-references, most of them update correctly, however a few of them update to 0. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you send me a copy of the document, or part of it that exhibits the problem, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

Answer 2

The error you are describing suggests that something has happened to the hidden bookmark that Word adds to a cross-referenced item. It is very easy to redefine the range for the bookmark by mistake. This happens, for example, if you add content at the beginning of the bookmarked paragraph, which will cause the bookmark to expand and possibly include an unnumbered paragraph. The workaround is to avoid adding content at the beginning of a cross-referenced paragraph. Instead, add content, or create a new paragraph, at the end of the previous paragraph.

Answer 3

Thanks Stefan,

I tried it by adding to the beginning of a numbered book-marked paragraph and then updated the cross-reference, and it updated correctly. What would cause the bookmark to expand to include an unnumbered paragraph if the content was added to the numbered paragraph?

Answer 4

The easiest way to demonstrate what might happen is to test it for yourself with a custom bookmark. Be sure to display bookmarks first (File | Options | Advanced: "Show bookmarks").

Any action that includes adding content, or simply pressing Enter to add a new paragraph, at the beginning of a bookmarked paragraph reproduces the issue. See screen shots below.

This is the first screen shot where I bookmarked a whole paragraph (I have displayed bookmarks and also enabled the display of nonprinting marks by clicking the ¶ icon on the Home tab):

This is the second example where I have added a paragraph at the beginning of the bookmarked paragraph:

Obviously, if the paragraph in this example had been numbered and I had cleared the numbering from the added paragraph, any cross-reference to the bookmark number would show zero.