1 Reply Latest reply: Aug 28, 2009 10:08 PM by Guy Burns RSS

    CS4: Why are my cross references disappearing?

    RodneyA Community Member

      I create my project as a book, with each article in its own file. Sometimes one article references another article, so I put in page number cross references between the files. Usually these are stable and update themselves as the page count changes, as they're supposed to. But quite often, the cross references disappear completely. Where the reference once read, for instance, 792-794, both numbers disappear, leaving the dash (the numbers are two different cross references to items on the first and last page of the article). Stepping through with the cursor, I can find that there's some kind of placeholder in the place where each number had been. The "Cross references" palette is completely empty -- as though there aren't any cross references at all.

       

      Worst of all, Indesign does not make it possible to search for cross references or markers, so there's no way to do a last-minute check before printing to find cross reference markers that may be damaged.

       

      Does anyone know what causes this problem, and how to prevent it?

        • 1. Re: CS4: Why are my cross references disappearing?
          Guy Burns Community Member

          This may or may not be applicable in your case, but when I was copying cross-references in Book format (I wanted the same reference in a number of places), I noticed that if the document where the destination was (the anchor) wasn't open, the cross-reference wouldn't copy correctly. I'd end up with a question mark. For that, and other reasons, I eventually consolidated the Book into one file by using Move. But during consolidation, I forgot to make sure every file in the Book was open. Result (unknown to me at the time) -- a few hundred cross-references were lost. Not the cross-reference marker itself -- the destination. I had to spend a few hours to reinstate them.

           

          Moral (for me anyway) -- make sure all documents in the Book are open at all times when cross-references are being set up, copied, or moved. Better still, unless you have a good reason for using Book, a single file is sometimes a better way to go, once you reach a certain stage (see http://forums.adobe.com/message/1286092)

           

          And you are correct about the limitations of cross-references as implemented in InDesign. It's rather primitive not being able to search or have decent editing facilities. Indexing is not much better. Maybe in another version or two of InDesign, cross-referencing and indexing will become worthy of their names.