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• • May 4, 2010 at 11:12 am #55639
    hvonmark

    Member

    Hi all,

    I am working on a large user manual (650 pages) with full front/back matter and numerous cross references. I can create and update cross references without problems, but every time I change one reference, a warning alert (yellow triangle) appears next to other references in that document — and in other chapters with references to that document. Also, when I update cross references at the book level, I get a warning that the update was a success, but that some documents still contain modified references — and the list is every chapter in the book!

    I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole with references…. is there some setting or option I need to turn on or off? Full disclosure, I am a new user (CS4, using CS5 trial on Mac now). Long-time framemaker user but found the transition to Indesign pretty easy.

    Many thanks in advance,

    Heidi

  • May 4, 2010 at 2:48 pm #55642
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    Perhaps this might help: today I had a similar problem, when exporting ID warned that “one or more cross-references are out of whack”.

    Rather than trying to find out which one (in a four-page table of contents, referring to any of about 40 chapters spread over 8 files), I called up the Preflight Panel and checked if there was anything available for Cross Refs. Yup — there was. I made a new profile, checking only the refs, and switched it on. 1 sec. later it told me the page number of a single reference; and clicking this page number took me right to the little troublemaker.

    I dunno what ID did, internally; I only had to open the corresponding referred-to file and the Preflight warning went away. Exported without a hitch, then closed the document — and then the Book panel showed a “Modified” warning! Well, I had my PDF, so I ignored that … until next time … (echoing “ha ha ha”'s in the distance).

  • May 19, 2010 at 3:20 pm #55767
    hvonmark

    Member

    Thank you for your post Jongware. I've tried a custom preflight profile and indeed it does show hundreds of outdated cross references. But i have confirmed that all refs are good — it's just indesign that seems to think they are bad.

    Here's what happens: I open a chapter file in the book and view the Cross Reference window, which shows little yellow triangles everywhere. I select all references, and click the update icon. Now all the warnings go away; I then save the file but keep it open. I move to another chapter file in the book and perform the same actions, then return to the first file and BAM! all the warnings are back. Additionally, if I simply select one cross-reference and update it — a large portion of the other references pop up with warnings. I have spent 8 hours today trying to find out the right way to update these suckers. I've tried front to back of book, back to front, saving then closing each file. Nothing is working. These !#$^!#@$ cross-references which work perfectly keep throwing warnings and are now preventing me from generating this book, with is otherwise completely free of errors.

    I had this problem in CS4 so I upgraded to CS5 thinking it might help but to no avail. Has anyone had anything like this happen before? I feel like I'm running out of things to try. Is there something fundamental I am missing? Help!

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