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Hello Adobe Support,
I have a person who is having trouble with cross references in Adobe Framemaker 2019. They have to insert and delete figures and tables, and it looks like it’s messing up the list of cross references, and links. Also possibly impacting the Table of Contents, the List of Figures and the List of Tables. Any idea what could be causing this?
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You're not talking with Adobe Support - this is a user-to-user forum with occasional glimpses of Staff. See https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#framemaker for your support contact options.
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... but this is exactly the right place here to ask such questions 😉
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But I didn't have any more time to dig into what's going on - so, what are they specifically doing? Inserting and deleting stuff shouldn't mess up anything once the book has been updated.
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From the user: "
I am inserting and deleting figures and tables. The cross references and markers are messed up. Somehow the markers and cross references do not line up. That is, the cross reference in the text says “Table 4-12” when it points to a marker listed as “Table 4-15.” All cross refs and markers are offset like this.
I believe I have figured out how to edit these cross references: First I edit the Marker, then I Replace the Cross Reference in the text with the newly edited Marker. It is slow and tedious. Is there were some way to edit the text of all these markers, or automatically refresh the numbering of these cross refs so that they line up with what their markers are supposed to say? How is it possible that the list of markers would include entries like “4-12, 4-15, 4-15, 4-19, 4-20…” having skipped some numbers in the sequence? And still have the reference look like it is pointing to the correct marker?"
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Do the autonumbers remain incorrect after doing an Update?
If so, we'd need to consider the syntax of the offending Xref Markers. If someone hand-typed a literal "Table 4-12" into the marker dialog, it's not going to update.
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There could be several reasons for that:
That said, can you please copy & paste the Cross-Reference definition here, and also check the figure/table title's auto-numbering setting? Screenshots should also be fine for us.
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Gwendolyn,
One of the major reasons to use cross-references is so that FrameMaker can automatically update them as the document evolves. As long as your customer's tables are numbered in the autonumber of the table title, FrameMaker will update the cross-references. FrameMaker does not change the cross-reference markers and there is no need for the user to do so. In fact, in most cases, users don't ever need to inspect the cross-reference markers.
When a writer creates a cross-reference to a paragraph (such as a table title), FrameMaker inserts a cross-reference marker in that paragraph. It creates marker text that is very likely to be unique in the document. As you have noticed that text does include the current autonumber of the cited paragraph. Suppose your customer creates a cross-reference to Table 4-15 and then deletes three of the preceding tables (or moves them to another chapter or later in the current one). The automatic numbering will change the number of what used to be Table 4-15 to Table 4-12. When the customer updates cross-references, for example, by updating a book, by using the Edit > Update References command, or (depending on document settings) simply by opening a document, FrameMaker will look for the original marker and retrieve the current number of the paragraph with that marker. It doesn't matter whether the number in the marker text matches the current table number; it just needs to differ from all the other marker text in the document. Since the marker contains other fields than the number, if the table's number changes, that string is intended to continue to identify that particular table.
--Lynne
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Well, if any content containing one or more cross-reference markers is deleted, any references to those are going to throw Unresolved Cross-Ref errors at the next update.
But I'm a bit confused by the term "list". What list is that? Is an LOM (list of markers) being generated?
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Is there were some way to edit the text of all these markers, or automatically refresh the numbering of these cross refs so that they line up with what their markers are supposed to say?
FrameMaker supports two different kinds of cross-references: paragraph cross references and spot cross references.
If you are editing markers, it sounds like someone took the long way with spot x-refs—can you confirm that this is what happened?
~Barb
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Is there someway I can connect to Support with the customer to show exactly what's happening?
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I don't actually know if Adobe offer Enterprise Support (or equivalent) for FM, but if your entity has a contract, you should have access to the contact credentials.
If you are seeking no-extra-charge support, this forum is it, for the most part. The software license subscription does not (and can't, really) include that. The former perpetual licenses never did.
Some forum members (not me) offer consulting services.
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Jeff gave you the link, above to connect with support.
On the Community Forum, we are volunteers who help other users in our free time. I am happy to look at one of your files. Add it to dropbox and put the link in a reply (public) or message me directly by clicking on my name above this post (private).
~Barb
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Just as a little bit of clarification (sort of off-topic): Adobe Support is for technical issues like installation, system integrations, crashers, etc. For "how-to" questions, this forum here is the perfect place to discuss them. Adobe Product management and the support team, (and I) "co-read" here as well, and can jump in where necessary.
I think this way, this forum becomes a huge ressource of information and knowledge over the time, we all learn from each other, and grow together 🙂