Cross-Referencing Between Documents

[Ryan Ragno]

Hi,

I have two huge .doc files (about 130 pages each):
1) is a document that has a lot of text/engineering guidelines
2) is comprised of about 4 VERY large tables, where in the leftmost column
of the table of every row are manual references to heading numbers in the
first document

At the moment, most of these references (in document 2) are done manually,
however any change in the first document (when inserting different sections)
puts all the manual references to specific sections of document 1 that have
already been done (in document 2) out and creates a HUGE nightmare to
manually do again.

I have looked up on MANY sites, and tried to sleuth through many questions
on the microsoft website to similar issues. I was hopeing to just use
cross-references in document 2 to refer to the sections in document 1, so
that when those heading numbers change i could have just updated the field,
however i don't think that is possible; leaving me having to probably use
bookmarks and hyperlinks: which would be fine if there was a way to update
the hyperlink name when the heading numbers in document 1 change as you can
with normal cross-references to headings by pressing CTRL+A then right
clicking and selection "update field".

Can anyone help me? I promise to answer many newbie excel questions to keep
the question/answer karma on my side!

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?UnlhbiBSYWdubw==?=,

I have two huge .doc files (about 130 pages each):
1) is a document that has a lot of text/engineering guidelines
2) is comprised of about 4 VERY large tables, where in the leftmost column
of the table of every row are manual references to heading numbers in the
first document

... I was hopeing to just use
cross-references in document 2 to refer to the sections in document 1

It can be done, but it takes a bit of work...

You have to bookmark everything in Document 1 that you want to cross-reference
in Document 2. In some cases, this may mean creating the reference in Document
1, bookmarking it, and formatting it as hidden.

In document 2 you use the IncludeText field (what you get if you use
Insert/File with a link and specify a bookmark name) to pick up the bookmark
content. You need a \* CharFormat switch in the field to override the hidden
formatting. If your cross-reference is a page number, you also need the \* !
Switch to prevent the field code coming across that calculates the page number
from updating to the new context.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Ryan Ragno]

Hi Cindy!

Thankyou for your extreemly prompt and helpful reply. I have worked out the
solution which includes the INCLUDETEXT field code without hyperlinks. There
are still some underlying problems with the solution though. If the document
1 name or directory changes, all references will show errors, but more
importantly, the bookmarks' names themselves are static/unchanging is there a
way to have thier names change with the references themselves or will i have
to simply settle with "bookmark1", "bookmark2", ... etc.

Thank you again

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Ryan,

I have worked out the
solution which includes the INCLUDETEXT field code without hyperlinks. There
are still some underlying problems with the solution though. If the document
1 name or directory changes, all references will show errors, but more
importantly, the bookmarks' names themselves are static/unchanging is there a
way to have thier names change with the references themselves or will i have
to simply settle with "bookmark1", "bookmark2", ... etc.

I'm afraid I don't understand what you're asking with this last... You can set
any bookmark name you wish when you create the bookmarks. Indeed, the names will
not change on their own, but I can't follow why they should?

As to moving the files around, best would simply be to run a "Find/Replace" on
the fields to make the change. When the field codes are displayed, Find/Replace
will pick up the content.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail