2 Replies Latest reply: Jun 26, 2013 7:54 AM by alanomaly RSS

    Make Indesign cross references link to the top/above the destination paragraph?

    alanomaly Community Member
    alanomaly Jun 26, 2013 7:15 AM

      Cross references in InDesign create interactive hyperlinks that link to a position in the resulting PDF where the targetted  destination paragraph is right at the very top of the page. Often, it's too far up - sometimes the paragraph text is actually off the top of the page, and usually it's partially off the top of the screen.

       

      When someone follows such a link, the most prominent text in the middle of the page has nothing to do with the link they clicked, and the heading corresponding to what they clicked is often partially off the top of the page as if it has been scrolled past. In my experience this looks like a mistake - they often won't see where they are supposed to start reading until, in confusion, they scroll back up the page a little.

       

      Is there any way to control this - to make cross references jump to a point with a decent amount of padding at the top, so that what the user is looking for appears in a prominent position on the screen?

        • 1. Re: Make Indesign cross references link to the top/above the destination paragraph?
          alanomaly Community Member
          alanomaly Jun 26, 2013 7:38 AM (in response to alanomaly)

          I've tried varying the leading, space before and space after for the target paragraphs that appears wholly off the screen after following the link, and for surrounding paragraphs, and varying what type of frame they are in. Nothing seems to make any difference - some paragraph styles jump to mid-way through the text, some to just above, some to just below.

           

          Can't see any pattern or any variable that can be adjusted to influence where the cross reference scrolling lands - seems almost random.

          • 2. Re: Make Indesign cross references link to the top/above the destination paragraph?
            alanomaly Community Member
            alanomaly Jun 26, 2013 7:54 AM (in response to alanomaly)

            After some experimentation I've found something that could help make a workaround: The 'Baseline Shift' value for the first character of the destination paragraph determines where the incoming cross reference scrolling will land. This might be the break character and might (invisibly) have the baseline shift value of an earlier paragraph.

             

            • Give that first paragraph a high positive baseline shift value, and there will be a corresponding amount of padding above the text when the incoming scroll lands.
            • Give that first paragraph a very negative baseline shift value, and it will be pushed up above the top of the screen a corresponding amount.

            In my problem paragraphs that weren't even on the screen when an incoming link landed, their first character (a tab between the 'bullets and numbering' paragraph number and the text) had somehow acquired a negative baseline shift from an earlier unrelated paragraph.