Hyperlinks or cross-references?

Thanks very much and so fast!

Basically it seems I use cross-references if things might change (pages for instance) but hyperlinks are for more static things like external links or back to the TOC. I'm still trying to figure out how bookmarks figure into all this. So far, so good folks. Thanks.

To add to all the good info you have already received, here's how I introduce cross-references to my students: next time you want to write a sentence like, "For more information, see xxx on page xx.", use a cross-reference to send the reader to a particular topic and page in your documentation. InDesign is happy to fill in the xxx's for you, and keep both up to date as you edit the document(s).

~Barb

Hi,

As in the Adobe helpx pages...

If you want the source text to be generated from the destination text, insert a cross-reference instead of adding a hyperlink.

A source is hyperlinked text, a hyperlinked text frame, or a hyperlinked graphics frame. A destination is the URL, file, email address, page text anchor, or shared destination to which a hyperlink jumps. A source can jump to only one destination, but any number of sources can jump to the same destination

You can specify whether a cross-reference derives from a paragraph style, such as a heading style, or from a text anchor you’ve created.

-Aman

A hyperlink is simpler and more general: It is a link (much like in a web browser) which takes you to a particular kind of destination. See the choices in the New Hyperlink dialog below:

A cross-reference pulls information from within the same or a different document which is referenced on a different page (see example below). You could reference only a page number, or part of a paragraph or a full paragraph. But because they are linked, if the destination location is updated, the cross-reference tracks it and updates the information (e.g., the page number).

cross references are for when you have references. as in you do a document with 200 pages and at the end it has 100 plus references since the author of the document cited from different sources.

The different is that cross reference will automatically renumber as you ad or remove references. The reference number can be clicked and you jump to the back of the document where you can read the entire reference and the designer might have included a hyperlink from there to the web page of the cited source, or a maybe a link to the book.

Hyperlinks are just links to a page, or a link to an outside webpage.