Lesson B: Cross References

To learn more about this, see “Cross References” (page 328). Could you hear the author’s geeky chuckle as you read that? That text is, obviously, a cross reference and this book uses them liberally (and sometimes comically). But seriously, there is more to be learned about cross references in the Compendium.

• In the downloaded document called 7 Long Documents.indd, go to pages 4 and 5 and fit that spread in the window (⌘-option-0/Ctrl-Alt-0).

Requires a Commitment to Styles-Use

The most common way to generate an automatic cross-reference is similar to how we create tables of contents: we refer to text using a particular paragraph style. In this exercise, we’ll make a reference to the caption below the image on page 4. It uses a paragraph style call figure caption and uses the Bullets & Numbering feature to number the paragraph. The string “Figure 1.” is the paragraph number to which we’ll refer.

• Insert the text cursor after the text “See,” about halfway down the frame on page 4. InDesign will write the rest with our direction.
• Choose Type > Hyperlinks & Cross-References > Insert Cross-Reference… summoning yet another large dialog box to configure. Alternately, you can use the Cross References panel menu (go to Window > Type & Tables > Cross-References to get the panel).
• InDesign will default to linking the reference to an entire paragraph in the document you’re currently editing. Note that you can create a reference to text in other open documents as well.
• In the Paragraph Styles list highlight figure caption. Each use of that style will now be listed in the Paragraph Text box. Yes, in this case, only one. Highlight it if it isn’t already.
• In Cross-Reference Format, choose Paragraph Number & Page Number. If you can see where you inserted the cursor, InDesign is showing a preview. Try other choices for formatting.
• Click OK and you’ve got a cross reference.
• The image and caption are grouped. Use the Selection tool to move that group to page 5. Unlike with TOCs, the page number in a cross reference changes instantly.

If you experiment, you’ll see that Full Paragraph means the Paragraph Text and the Paragraph Number (if there is one). Making your own formatting is possible, too. See “Building a Cross Reference” (page 328). Did you catch that? I did it again.

Referencing Arbitrary Text

Sometimes you may wish to refer to a word or phrase rather than an entire paragraph. In that case, we create Text Anchors that we can choose in the New Cross-Reference dialog instead of paragraphs.

• Highlight the bolder text in the frame on page 5.
• Get the Hyperlinks panel: Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks.
• In the Hyperlinks panel menu, choose New Hyperlink Destination.
• Set the Type to Text Anchor and give a concise Name that might be used as the cross-
  reference text. Click OK. Now, there is a way to refer to that bit of text.
• Insert the text cursor next to the text “Also See.”
• Choose Type > Hyperlinks & Cross-References > Insert Cross-Reference….
• Set Link To to Text Anchor.

• Choose the Text Anchor you created.
• Choose the Format you’d like. When the text content of the anchor is too long, I usually choose the Text Anchor Name to go with the Page Number.
• Click OK and you’ve got another cross reference.