Cross-reference headings not updating

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michele@quality-computing.com - 22 Jul 2005 04:43 GMT

Hi,

I'm using Word 2002 and going a bit crazy. I've got outline headings
and I've updated two of them. They appear fine when I update my TOC,
but when I go to reference them, they just don't appear in the list.

Any ideas what I can do to get them into the list?

The heading wants to start right after the last of the previous page.
Then there is a page break and then my heading on the next page, which
wraps to two lines. Then the line after that is normal.

Thanks,

Michele

P.S. - Am I crazy to try outline numbering with 40 page document? The
last thing I heard about was that Word didn't handle this very well.
The document just grew.

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Robert M. Franz (RMF) - 22 Jul 2005 08:54 GMT

Hi Michele

> I'm using Word 2002 and going a bit crazy. I've got outline headings
> and I've updated two of them. They appear fine when I update my TOC,
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Then there is a page break and then my heading on the next page, which
> wraps to two lines. Then the line after that is normal.

Let's settle this page break thing first, and maybe your worries with
the heading will go away: don't use a hard page break here, never! Those
beasts have no place at all in a structured longish document (same goes
for empty paragraphs).

If you need every heading of this type to start on a new page, then add
the "Page break before" (paragraph property, in the second tab of the
Format | Paragraph dialogue) to the style. "Keep lines together" and
"Keep with next" are both good ideas for such heading styles (or for any
heading styles, for that). If you do _not_ want every heading of this
type to go to a new page, then add the "Page break before" property only
to the one heading (the one "instance" of this style, so to speak).

Now try again to reference to those headings.

> P.S. - Am I crazy to try outline numbering with 40 page document? The
> last thing I heard about was that Word didn't handle this very well.
> The document just grew.

Not crazy, but you need to setup your outline numbering carefully. If
everything's all right so far, you may leave it for the moment. Should
anything strange happen, look at the standard pages for setting up
outline numbering here:

See the section on "Numbering, bullets, Headings, Outlines" (by Shauna
Kelly)
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/
Word's numbering explained (by John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm
How to do it in VBA (by Dave Rado)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/CureListNumbering.htm

HTH
Robert

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mjones - 22 Jul 2005 16:35 GMT

> Hi Michele
>
[quoted text clipped - 47 lines]
> X Against HTML | for
> / \ in e-mail & news | Word

Hi Robert,

I tried both your ideas, but unfortunatly neither works. I set the
text on my page to both "Keep lines together" and "Keep with next", and
they did, and the TOC worked, but still no selection in cross-reference
heading. Then I tried the 'page break before' and again no go,
although I like this one and will use it going forward.

Let me know if you have any further ideas (I've worked 3 hours already
trying to figure this out!). In the meantime, I will review the links
you mentioned.

You see, I need to prepare large documents. I am a certified Project
Management Professional and I need to prepare large Project Plans with
lots of outlining, tables, pictures, cross-references table of
contents, appendices...the whole nine yards. I'm sure links you sent
will come in handy. I have to learn this.

Someone told me once that FrameMaker was better for this type of thing
so if anyone has any opinion on that I'd appreciate some feedback.

Also, I have a new book to write (well for the author). The first book
she gave me half done in Word so I continued with it, but I'm wondering
if there isn't better software to do that kind of thing, too.

Thanks for your kind reply,

Michele

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Robert M. Franz (RMF) - 22 Jul 2005 17:01 GMT

Hi Michele

[..]

> I tried both your ideas, but unfortunatly neither works. I set the
> text on my page to both "Keep lines together" and "Keep with next", and
> they did, and the TOC worked, but still no selection in cross-reference
> heading. Then I tried the 'page break before' and again no go,
> although I like this one and will use it going forward.

You deleted the hard pagebreak, too, right?

> Let me know if you have any further ideas (I've worked 3 hours already
> trying to figure this out!). In the meantime, I will review the links
> you mentioned.

I couldn't imagine why the heading is not showing up in the Insert |
Reference | Crossreference dialogue. Did you make sure that you have
selected the correct category there ("Heading")? Is the heading style in
question numbered (by Word's listnumbering, not "manually" or via a
field numbering)? If so, what if you chose "Numbered items" as the category?

> You see, I need to prepare large documents. I am a certified Project
> Management Professional and I need to prepare large Project Plans with
> lots of outlining, tables, pictures, cross-references table of
> contents, appendices...the whole nine yards. I'm sure links you sent
> will come in handy. I have to learn this.

http://word.mvps.org along with groups.google.com (searching in theses
newsgroups here) will be your companion for a while, then!

> Someone told me once that FrameMaker was better for this type of thing
> so if anyone has any opinion on that I'd appreciate some feedback.

I have but a one-week course experience with FrameMaker. It's a very old
and thus pretty stable DTP application. But starting to learn it today
doesn't seem like a very good investment IMHO (Adobe doesn't look too
inclined to invest too much into the product anymore). It couldn't tempt
me to learn more about it despite a handful of interesting features.

Word is a huge application full of features that the casual user has no
idea they're there, or how to use them. It lets you do one thing in a
multitude of way, and usually only two or three ways are really advisable.

> Also, I have a new book to write (well for the author). The first book
> she gave me half done in Word so I continued with it, but I'm wondering
> if there isn't better software to do that kind of thing, too.

You should use what you know best (and learn that tool better en route).
"Best practice" would always be to create your own template and start
from scratch (i.e., importing the text via the clipboard or as a raw
text) and style everything through. A/_the_ starter for that would be:

Creating a Template (Part II, by John McGhie)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm
[There's a short "Part I" article up on the same site, too.]

If you run into trouble with a document that didn't originate in your
own hands, then it's often a lot harder to determine (esp. from far
away) what actually is going wrong. If you don't find the solution to
your crossref problem soon, I can offer to take a look into a sample
file (where you stripped out as much as possible while still retaining
the bogus effect; you could send that one zipped up to my email address).

Greetinx
Robert

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mjones - 22 Jul 2005 18:39 GMT

Hi Robert,

I finally fixed it by removing all the headings and putting them back
in again. Yes, I deleted the hard page break and was using Word's
listnumbering.

You see, I have 15 appendices and only 12 and 13 were not showing in
the list. So I had to be doing something right.

I appreciate the advice on the software choices, too and will consider
what you said very carefully.

Thanks so much and have a great day,

Michele

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