Converting cross references from Frame

I am importing my Frame files by reference in RoboHelp (using
Technical Communication Suite). I have mapped my "Heading &
Page" cross reference style to the <$paratext> building block
to drop the page numbers from the cross references. I cannot for
the life of me get these to import correctly. When I import the
chapters, the cross references still contain the page numbers. In
addition, they are not hyperlinks, as they are in Frame.
Double-clicking on the imported cross reference links does nothing.
I am desperate to get these to convert properly - I have 34
chapters to import from my user guide!!

Yes, I applied all of the patches and same problem.
What I did yesterday afternoon was to save the source FM file
as MIF and take a look at the markers. The cross reference markers
that were failing to move over had an \xod at the end. I posted in
the Framemaker forum and discovered that this was the hexadecimal
for a carriage return. As for why there would be a carriage return
at the end of some of my cross reference markers I have no idea and
I assure you it was not because I hit ENTER.
However, I have been having some success this morning in
deleting the cross reference markers and reinserting them. Of
course, this messes up all of the other cross reference pointers
throughout the book. It may be that if more than one cross
reference is made to a single source (e.g., the marker is used more
than once) the \xod appears. I am not yet sure. In between the
time-consuming and focus-grabbing Force Updates and the frequent
RoboHelp crashes during the Force Update process it takes some time
to discover. Framemaker never had a problem keeping track of my
cross references \xod or no.
I still have the problem of two cross references right next
to each other causing a Fatal Error when I try to compile. So I
have to add some spurious word like "and" and it won't even let me
make this word white. So I basically have to rewrite my source
document.
Any patches planned? Also, please consider an upgrade to the
server hosting this board: it is extremely unresponsive.
Thank you,
Z.

Similar Messages

Convert Cross-Reference to Text

Does anybody have a script that will convert cross-references to text? In other words, I want to be able to remove the linkage of the cross-reference but keep the static text in place.
Editorial comment: I set up on my local computer several books in CS6 and used cross-references, and everything worked fine. Then I moved the files to a network location and started suffering that painful slowdown that I had experienced in previous versions of InDesign. (I foolishly believed Adobe would have fixed this by now. My mistake.)

I'm guessing that the op want to convert the cross-references that you set in the Hyperlinks panel. Try this:
var xrefs = app.documents[0].crossReferenceSources.everyItem().getElements();
for (var i = xrefs.length-1; i > -1; i--){
xrefs[i].sourceText.insertionPoints[-1].contents = xrefs[i].sourceText.contents;
xrefs[i].remove();
Peter

Cross-references from one Frame book to another

I have a client who has two FrameMaker 8 books. The books were a mess (left over from a previous contractor - it was a nightmare) and they hired me to fix them.
But one thing that did work in the old books was their cross-ref setup - they need cross-refs from each book to the other one. The client knew that they had to have the Frame and pdf files in a stable folder structure that did not change. Then, when they created their two pdfs, the cross-refs "found each other" properly.
I fixed everything in the Frame docs EXCEPT those book-to-book cross-refs. I told my client that they would have to create those on their own, because I couldn't duplicate their folder structure - and they were fine with that. But I DID create all cross-refs that were within each individual book (hundreds of them - very technical books).
But now they are getting hundreds of unresolved cross-refs when they open the files in each book. I thought they must have moved some files out of the folders that I gave them in their zip files, but they swear they haven't done so.
For the life of me, I can't think of any other reason why they're having trouble with the cross-refs. Any ideas?
Gilda Spitz

Gilda, Here are some simple rules for creating book-to-book links in PDFs from FM: 1. If you're creating the PDFs of the books as a single PDF, then you must have the respective ".book" files open (no need for the .fm files to be open), when creating the PDFs. Otherwise, the "external" links will be made to the specific pdf equivalent of the ".fm" file, if the ".book" file is not open. 2. The links between the books on the same disk drive, will be as relative links, which need to preserved if the files are moved. 3. If the goal is to have all of the book PDFs in one place for distribution, then it's best to place all of the .book files in the same folder to begin with. The .fm files can be in their own respective project folders, but you have to keep the books together. Caution: simply moving/copying (or doing a Save As from within FM) the .book files to the common folder will not work, as they will be missing the (relative) path to the actual .fm files. You'll need to either recreate the book files (be careful with TOC, IX and other generated files - you have to recreate, not add, these to book) in the target folder or do some spelunking in a .mif version of the .book to adjust the path on the "<FileName" entry of each book component. [This sounds like a job for Framescript... ;-) ] 4. If the names of the .book files are not the names that you want to have on the final PDF files, then change the .book filenames to what you want before creating the PDFs. When the .book files are open for creating PDFs, FM will use the .book filename for the target in cross-book links. Let FM always handle the naming, otherwise you run a very good chance of breaking cross-book links. 5. If you are producing the PDFs as individual files of the component .fm files in the book, then things are a bit trickier. You have to do each component file, one at a time and have the target .book file open when going down this route. It won't work as you expect when trying to print using the "*" directive for the multiple files at once. IIRC, there was a plug-in from Mekon quite a while ago that fixed this situation for FM5 and 6. I don't know if it's needed now, as I tend to avoid the SaveAs PDF route in the newer versions, so I haven't tested this issue with FM8 or FM9. I hope this helps clarify some things. And the grand master of all things FM to PDF (Shlomo Perets) may be all over this if I've got something wrong or have outdated advice. In that case, never mind...

Successfully importing cross-references from Microsoft Word into InDesign?

Hello --
I am laying out a series of long documents (~130 pages each) in InDesign CS5.5.
The writer for the project has used cross-references in MS Word for areas like the TOC, index and page references ("See page X for more information").
Is it possible to import these cross-references into InDesign so that the InDesign document functions like the Word document with the cross-references?
I am thinking no because I am having a ton of trouble with it so far, but wanted to get a definite answer from an expert.
When I import the text, the cross-references appear in InDesign in the Hyperlinks/cross-reference panel. However, InDesign says they need to be updated based on the way the text flowed in InDesign. And when I click the auto update button, all sorts of funky stuff happens and basically -- the cross-references create a bunch of typos and become junk.
Thoughts? Knowledge on this topic?
Thanks in advance!!

wikiElvis wrote:
Hello --
I am laying out a series of long documents (~130 pages each) in InDesign CS5.5.
The writer for the project has used cross-references in MS Word for areas like the TOC, index and page references ("See page X for more information").
Is it possible to import these cross-references into InDesign so that the InDesign document functions like the Word document with the cross-references?
I am thinking no because I am having a ton of trouble with it so far, but wanted to get a definite answer from an expert.
When I import the text, the cross-references appear in InDesign in the Hyperlinks/cross-reference panel. However, InDesign says they need to be updated based on the way the text flowed in InDesign. And when I click the auto update button, all sorts of funky stuff happens and basically -- the cross-references create a bunch of typos and become junk.
Thoughts? Knowledge on this topic?
Thanks in advance!!
I can't speak to general or specific causes of your cross-reference problems. However, I believe that InDesign x-refs behave a bit differently in CS4, CS5, and CS5.5, and if you have either of these earlier releases, you might try them for comparison.
Also, you might want to look into the free trial of DTP Tools' cross-references plug-in for InDesign, at dtptools.com, to see if it's more successful than InDesign's built-in x-refs.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Cross references from a word file

I've already read on this forum Indesign (CS6) has problems with cross references in Word files. (I mean dynamic references like "see page/paragraph/chapter x".) Whenever I see them, I just delete them in Word and update them manually in the final draft. (By the way, as a standard, I save Word files as Word 97-2003.)
The problem is (luckily, I should say), this Word feature is hardly used, so for the book I'm working on, I forgot to check.
I only noticed when I had worked for a full day on it in Indesign. The next day I could't open the Indesign file anymore. Well, **** happens, so I started anew. Next day, same problem, so I contacted the Adobe helpdesk; they couldn't reopen the file either.
Third try. Now I made copies before closing the document, first testing if I could reopen them. I already had guessed these cross references were the problem. They appeared as a tiny blue double dot in the text (a bit like the upper half of the marking for index codes). I couldn't find a way to search for them, so I searched the Word file for field codes and removed them manually in the Indesign file. All of them, I thought.
I closed it and reopened it a few times, no problem. No need to check anymore and first make a copy, I thought. I sent a pdf of the first draft to the author, processed his corrections, closed the document.
The next day I couldn't reopen it.
Now I'm not the kind of guy that gives in too easily, but before I start doing this book for the fourth time, I would like to be sure it will be the last time. So:
-     Is there a way to reopen this InDesign file?
-     Is there a way to search for these corrupted (?) reference codes in the Indesign file? (I still have a 80% ready copy of the Indesign file I can use.)
-     Will removing all of these codes be the final solution,or should I remove the codes in the Word file and start completely anew? Of course that wouldn't make me very happy.

Forum participants are not Adobe employees. We're users like you who volunteer to share what we know.
Thanks for the added details.
Usually someone somewhere in the forum's global audience is awake and eager to participate at almost any hour. However, "super storm" Sandy in the USA has caused massive losses of power, transportation, and communication, so responses may be delayed for some time.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Fritschy wrote:
Thanks for your compliments, although they don't bring me any further.
The version is 8.0.1, I always update when I'm prompted to do so by the update centre. As far as I know it is an international version.
Still, I would guess the InDesign developers could tell me something about that ':' marker. I suppose the software didn't invent it itself.

Importing cross references from Word doc

I have a lengthy Word document containing many cross references that I would like to import and maintain in my InDesign document. Can this be done?

Please post this in the InDesign forum. This forum is for DPS specific issues only.
Bob

Frame Maker 9 Cross References Question

Howdy,
I got two documents the original and a translated version of it. The original has a bunch of working cross references and it's all fine and dandy. The translated one on the other has a bunch of broken cross-references, chapter headers, headers in general and what not. Almost all of the "code" broke when the translator did it.
Either way, that's easy enough to fix it, I can just copy the working code from the original and paste into the translated document and it will generaelly fix the error.
Now for the question - Since my translated document is a couple of pages longer than the original due to the translation can I still copy of the cross references from the first document over, and it will be all fine and dandy?
Basically I didn't write either docuements I'm just fixing formatting and other errors, and I'm not entirely 100% how Frame Maker does it cross references are they based on a page number/paragraph parameters, or something like under X subheading go here and that's how it links.
TL;DR How do Cross refernces work in FM9? And if I have a translated doc longer than my original, can those same Cross references work in both docs?
Thanks much for any help/insight.
Dean,

Almost all of the "code" broke when the translator did it.
They probably deleted the Cross-Ref Markers when over-typing the text. If Text Symbols were off during edit, that's pretty easy to do.
... and I'm not entirely 100% how Frame Maker does it cross references are they based on a page number/paragraph parameters, or something like under X subheading go here and that's how it links.
Unless you are Xref'ing a hand-created Marker, Frame auto-creates a Marker, of type "Cross-Ref" at the start of the target paragraph. It also auto creates an Mtext tag, which contains what appears to be a unique number string, the Paragraph Format name and the paragraph text (including any auto number). There is also a <Unique> tag with another unique number string.
When resolving references, my impression is that Frame first searches for the <Unique> number, and if not found, then for the Mtext string, and then possibly for the Mtext string without the leading number string.
If the translators do two things, I would expect the Xrefs to port:
Don't disturb Xref Markers. This can be tough, because it's sometimes hard to select text and not nab leading Markers, and because all Marker symbols look alike, and the Index markers do need to be messed with.
Don't translate text defined by Markers. That text will auto-translate from the source text at Update.

Cross Reference paragraphs from Word to imbedded Visio document

I have a word document with about 200 steps included which are cross referenced throughout Word. I have a Visio flowchart that serves as a visual picture of these steps, but requires manual input and adjustment when we adjust the steps in Word.
I don't want to use the hyperlink, I'd rather have a cross reference that will auto update the step number only to match the Word paragraph number. If I could incorporate cross references from the text in the Visio file objects to the paragraph numbers
in Word, this would save many hours at my organization. Additionally, this is Visio Professional 2007 as I couldn't find a forum for 2007, only 2010. I've searched many forums, but haven't come across any successful answer. PLEASE HELP MICROSOFT!

When I've used hyperlinks, I've always tied them to bookmarks in the word document. I haven't heard of a cross-reference between the two products.
al
Al Edlund Visio MVP

Cross references not picking up character styles in source text

I'm getting some annoying odd behaviour with cross references in Frame 12.
I have some tables, where the paragraph style in the cell is called "Cell Body" (nothing odd there).
Quite a few of the cells only have one word in them, and that word is set to courier font with a character style (called "Code").
Then, elsewhere in the document, I am referring to this text using cross references. I am referencing the paragraph style Cell Body, and the cross reference format applied is like this "<hyperlink><$paratext><Default ¶ Font>"
"hyperlink" is another character style that makes the text go green.
So, the cross reference out to take the text from the cell (in Courier) and reproduce it, coloured green.
However for about half of these cross references, it isn't picking up the Code character style in the source text, so the cross ref is just green, no green courier.
Things are further bamboozled when I output to HTML Help.
In the CHM file, the cross refs which appear to work OK (green courier) are now just courier.
The ones which failed to pick up the courier look the same as they do in Frame (just green).
Any ideas as to what's going on?
I've tried troubleshooting by clearing the cells, reapplying the para style and default character style, then reapplying the code character style, then replacing the cross reference - which sometimes seemed to fix it but didn't always.

Arnis Gubins wrote:
Using two character tags in-line together (a la <hyperlink><Code>) is asking for trouble. IIRC, FM doesn't re-apply these in order on an update and depending upon how they are defined (and what is set to AsIs), the outer one usually wins. .
So why does the blimmin' dialog invite me to do precisely that, by providing me with a list of all the character styles I have, and allowing me to select as many of them as I like??? /sulks/ Indeed, if Frame still shipped with a printed user guide instead of stupid "optimised for viewing on iPhones" online webhelp nonsense, I suspect I might very well be able to find an example in the manual of using multiple character styles in that dialog! If it doesn't want you to use more than one, why doesn't it grey out after you add the first one? /sighs/ The concept is called "cascading styles", it's a fundamental web paradigm! And it works in the main body text - why not in Xrefs!
Also, I have been very scrupulous to keep my character styles orthogonal so none of their AsIs's mash each other up.
But, rant over, I shall follow your splendid suggestion for a "Code Hyperlink" style.
Arnis Gubins wrote:
Also, x-ref formatting may behave differently in the new Publishing modules depending upon ....
...Depending on how badly designed and buggy this new Frame12 feature is, I should say! The Publish module should not randomly stop behaving in a WYSIWIG manner in completely undocumented fashion just because Adobe couldn't be bothered to code it properly. /sighs/
Frankly, for my current project, I've given up trying to jump through hoops for Publish - I'm concentrating on getting the Frame source right and assuming these quirks will be fixed in Frame 13 (or 14, depending on how superstitious they are). Because if I put in ad hoc workarounds for them in Frame 12, I (or a colleague) will only have to undo them later when they're fixed, and by then we'll all have forgotten what the original problem was.

Cross-reference between structured and unstructured FM documents

Hello,
Is it possible to retain FM cross-references from structured to unstructured FM documents during an XML round trip?
From what I know, cross-references between or inside structured documents form pairs of ID and IDREF, while cross-references to unstructured documents are dumped as normal text and lose their functionality.
The unstructured target documents might be converted to Structured FM at some point, but for the time being I'd like to find another solution. Do you know any solution to this?
Thanks,
Johannes

Johannes,
This is just a guess, because I do not do this.
First, of course, you cannot export the unstructured file to XML, because it is unstructured.
Second, IF the cross-reference from the structured file to the unstructured file were done via your cross-reference ELEMENT, then the cross-reference element should export to XML as an XML element with one of its IDref attribute set to the ID of something in the unstructured file. When you open the XML file in FrameMaker, the cross-reference is re-established.
In other words, when exporting to XML, FrameMaker does not care to what you are referencing. It just converts the cross-reference element into an element with an attribute in the XML file. So, it should work as expected when opened in FrameMaker. Of course, I am assuming your read-write file is set up to handle cross-references.
On the other hand, IF you are creating your cross-reference from the structured file by simply inserting a cross-reference, that is NOT as an element, then I do not know what happens. If it is being exported as text, then I am not sure FrameMaker will know what to do with it when you reopen the XML file.
Hope this helps,
Van

Acrobat 9 Pro: Links to Word TOC and cross references are lost

I'm testing Acrobat 9 Pro and while it successfully creates a PDF from Word 2003 with bookmarks, all my TOC and internal page reference links are lost.
I have triple checked the conversion settings from the Adobe PDF menu option in Word, and the "Convert cross-references and table of contents to links" check box is definitely selected.
I used the same Word document on another machine with Acrobat 6 Pro installed - and the TOC and cross ref links were created successfully. As far as I can see the Adobe PDF settings in Word 2003 on both machines are the same - the only difference is that one uses Acrobat 6 Pro and the other uses Acrobat 9 Pro.
The only setting in 9 Pro I turned off was the 'enable accessibility tagging' one; it's also turned off in 6 Pro. The remaining settings are the default.
A clickable TOC and internal links is essential for my clients who often have 400+ page documents.
Anybody have any suggestions? Or can anybody confirm that they do/don't get the same behavior in Acrobat 9 Pro?

Thanks Abhigyan - your test PDF worked fine for me.
This is what I've done today:
1. Checked for all instances of pdfm*.dot files and removed any that were lurking in old Application Data and Microsoft Office folders.
2. Deleted all Acrobat 5 and 6 folders and subfolders still lurking in Program Files.
3. Used Add/Remove to delete Adobe Reader 8 and its updates. I figure I can always install Reader 9 if I need it as a separate app.
4. Checked that everything was gone using the Windows Installer CleanUp utility (it was).
5. Restarted my machine.
6. Turned off my anti-virus software.
7. Did a search for any pdfm*.dot files - found one only in the current Microsoft Office folder and left it there.
8. Reinstalled Acrobat 9 Professional.
9. Opened my test Word 2003 document.
10. Checked all the Acrobat conversion settings and left them as the defaults.
11. Converted the doc to PDF and checked for internal links. Yes! The TOC links worked! But my joy was short-lived as the page link didn't work...
12. Tried various other conversion settings based on some suggestions from Lance in first level Adobe Support yesterday - still no page link. And I also lost the TOC links when I cleared the Enable Accessibility check box on the Settings tab of the conversion settings.
13. Checked the Edit > Preferences > Convert To PDF settings for Word in Acrobat 9 - add bookmarks and add links are both selected (default).
14. Used Acrobat 9 to create the PDF (File > Create > From File) hoping that this might might a difference. Nope. No TOC or page links.
15. Changed conversion settings back to default via Word 2003, and created a PDF from a longer document. Again the TOC links worked, the URLs worked (they always did), the bookmarks worked (they always did too), but the none of the internal page cross-reference links worked.
So my summary is this:
* I can only create TOC links *if* Enable Accessibility is turned on, but I have always turned this off in earlier versions of Acrobat as I don't need it and it made the process of creating a PDF from a long document incredibly slow - I'm wary of using it!
* I cannot get internal page links to work at all, no matter which method I use to create the PDF (from within Word or within Acrobat), and no matter which conversion settings I select.
I really don't know what to try next. Manually creating links for what could be hundreds of cross-references in a single document is NOT an option, especially as I have many of these long documents.
Any further suggestions?

[AS] How to make cross reference at insertion point

Hi,
I have a book ("indb") including several documents with several "anchors"
(german translation: "Textanker") where cross references from different documents are linked to.
What I already got is to reference all anchors and collect them in a list.
Now I would like to make a new cross reference at the insertion point
in a text frame of the active document - can't get it to run :-(
Is anybody out there who can post a AS-sample doing this?
Thanks in advance!
Here is the reference to an already existing anchor:
{hyperlink text destination id 44155 of document "kapitel 2.indd" of application "Adobe InDesign CS4"}
The code I tried to make a new cross reference looks like this - but of course doesn't work:
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS4"
tell active document
make new hyperlink with properties {name:"new hyperlink", destination:hyperlink text destination id 44155 of document "kapitel 2.indd"}
end tell
end tell

Thanks a lot - got it now!
Maybe it could be helpful for others to look at your answer
with the placeholders replaced by "real" strings as it was hard for me
to figure out the right form:
tell document 1
set theDest to make hyperlink text destination with properties {name:"Some name", destination text:<a reference to the relevant text>}
this line for example looks like this =>
set theDest to make hyperlink text destination with properties {name:"Some name", destination text:insertion point 902 of story id 44083 of document "kapitel 3.indd" of application "Adobe InDesign CS4"}
set theSource to make cross reference source with properties {name:"Some name",source text:< reference to the relevant text>}
this line for example looks like this =>
set theSource to make cross reference source with properties {name:"Some name", source text:cursorPosition, applied format:cross reference format id 44305 of document "kapitel 1.indd" of application "Adobe InDesign CS4"}
where "cursorPosition" was defined before by
set cursorPosition to object reference of selection
(the cross reference source needs the applied format reference too)
make hyperlink with properties {source:theSource, destination:theDest, visible:true, highlight:invert, width:thick, border color:dark green, border style:dashed, name:"Whatever" }
this line for example looks like this =>
make hyperlink with properties {source:theSource, destination:hyperlink text destination id 44184 of document "kapitel 3.indd" of application "Adobe InDesign CS4", border color:black, highlight:none, border style:solid, hidden:false, visible:true, width:thin}
end tell

Maintaining internal word cross references in word import

I'm using RoboHelp 9.0.1 trying to import Word 2007 (docx) in order to generate a WebHelp. I have adjusted my style mapping in order generate an appropriate TOC with books and matching sub chapters, which works fine. However, internal Word cross references from the original Word document are not transformed into hyperlinks.
I have already tried/verified the following:
- The "convert cross references to hyperlink" option is checked in the RH-Word import settings.
- I also tried fiddling with the Framemaker options as it is suggested in another thread (see beneath), with no success.
- Within the Word source document I tried both options with "use hyperlinks instead" when creating cross references.
- The RH-HTML source, in all of my attempts, does not show any links in the corresponding locations.
What may I be missing here? According to another, similar thread, the feature should work and is really not that challenging:
"RH9 - Can not create ANY links in linked Word documents"
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/854095?tstart=0

In my testing, I got a link in the RH topic, but it wanted to launch the target Word doc instead of jumping to the desired RH topic. I'd say this sounds like a bug - so go ahead and report it.

Cross-References Broken In RoboHelp 10 Output

We are using FrameMaker 11 to author our documentation. We have some cross-reference links that do not work when the FrameMaker book is imported into RoboHelp. Upon import, the href information is not included in the link in the HTML code. The text looks like a link, however. When the help is generated, the text is not a link. The following is an example of a non-functioning link:
see <a>Link</a>.
Here is an example of a cross-reference that is functioning correctly:
<a href="#XREF_90399_Heading_Text">Link</a>
There are no errors in FrameMaker. The cross-reference is updating correctly in FrameMaker. In addition, when a PDF is made form the same book, the cross-reference works in the PDF.
Troubleshooting steps I have taken:
I have tried going to MIF and back for both the source and target documents.
I have recreated the cross-reference and marker.
I have tried linking to a heading cross-reference marker, as well as a manually create cross-reference marker.
I have renamed the file.
I have renamed the marker.
I have used different cross-reference formats.
I recreated the file by copying all the text to Notepad and pasting the text back into a fresh FrameMaker file.
None of the steps I have attempted have corrected the issue for the cross-reference I focused my troubleshooting on. I hope that someone can point me in the right direction to correct this issue.

I have been trying everything I can think of to move the files around to resolve the issue. 35 characters is very disappointing. Is this for the file and cross reference or the whole file path? I am not sure how you are going to be able to link from one Framemaker file to another, including a cross-reference name (especially when you can use heading for the cross-reference name) with a limitation like this. We also have a large library with many directories. We utilize single sourcing, so some files are in completely other directories from the file that is cross-referencing to it. From what you are telling me, it sounds like we no longer have the ability to use cross-references from one file to another in our library structure. Are you saying that all cross references basically need to be in the same file to allow cross references to work properly in RoboHelp? We moved from a WebWorks solution and we never had any issues with our links.
What I don't understand is the marker is in the destination file in the converted RoboHelp files, but the link is completely missing the <a href="#XREF_name ofmarker"> code in the cross-reference link. When I go in and manually link the cross-reference in RoboHelp, it works. This seems like a bug. I think having a 35 character limit on a filepath, filename, and cross-reference name is not going to work for anyone that has any sort of complex directory structure with multiple authors, sharing content and since it isn't a limitation of HTML, I don't see why this functions this way. Manually linking isn’t a reasonable option for us. We have a publishing system that publishes all of our output. We have hundreds of files that are generated automatically.

Cross References: CS4 to CS3

Background:
My company group uses InDesign CS3 on Windows XP for about 5% of our document needs. The small percentage is primarily due to cost and learning curve issues, but we don't push to move more documents (particularly our engineering reports) from Word to InDesign because of page numbering and cross-referencing issues. The documents are graphics heavy, so this is a shame, particularly with our 300+ page documents that end up as pdfs.
Question:
I've read that cross-referencing has been extensively beefed up in CS4. If I use CS4 to put in cross references and take my document to my CS3 what happens?

According to the Help file,
Delete cross-referencesWhen you delete a cross-reference, the source cross-reference is converted to text.1In the Cross-References section of the Hyperlinks panel, select the cross-reference or cross-references you want to delete.2Click the Delete icon, or choose Delete Hyperlink/Cross-Reference from the panel menu.3Click Yes to confirm.To completely remove a cross-reference, you can also select the cross-reference source and delete it.
"Deleting" and "completely removing" are different, and the characters composing the xref remain in the text if the xref is "deleted" ("converted to text" would be better terminology). You can select and "delete" all the xrefs in a document simultaneously, so it's a fast operation. I would then imagine that the text of the "deleted" xrefs will survive as text in ID3. You'll just have to try this last bit.
The above is no good if you have to round-trip. I think you then have to buy DTP Tools' Cross-References Pro plug-in and use it to make xrefs in ID4, ignoring ID4's built-in capacities. These xrefs should survive as xrefs in ID3 (with the same plug-in installed), tho' you might want to check with the DTP people on that to be absolutely sure. If you then go back to editing the doc in ID4, the xrefs should still be there, "live" as opposed to dead text.
Amazing that your company does tech docs in Word. Upgrading to ID4, or if you're on Windows, switching to FrameMaker, is a better way to go. There are various reports on the Web you can google that contrast Word and FM -- I bet quite a lot is applicable to Word vs ID too. You might be able to put together a persuasive budget request from them.

Converting cross references from Frame

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