Broken cross-references in PDFs

[Shlomo Perets]

Donna Jones wrote:

>As Fred and Richard have already pointed out, Frame won't create working
>cross-references in text insets when you create a PDF. That's a
>FrameMaker bug that may or may not ever get fixed.
>
>In my TechPubs department, we came up with a couple of solutions:
>
>1. Break down your content into small enough chunks that each chunk can
>be linked into a book without having to be a text inset. I broke my
>content apart into separate files by level 1 heading (very rarely by
>level 2) rather than by chapter because some of my manuals use all of
>those topics and some don't. If a particular manual doesn't use a topic,
>I simply leave it out of the book file. By doing this, I eliminated the
>need for text insets altogether. This method also can cut down on the
>amount of conditional text that you may need to use, which is an added
>bonus. Your book file will get longer because you'll have more files in
>it, but you'll have more control over everything overall. ...


Workarounds for the problem of cross-references in text insets not being 
PDF links are indeed time-consuming (but depending on the specific needs, 
automation may be possible through add-ons).

With respect to having shared content added as a book component in multiple 
books, the following should be noted:

* Each file in a book must start on a new page (but can be set to "next 
available" side, if you have double-sided pagination).

* When multiple books are using the same file, different headers/footers or 
variables may have to be addressed by importing formats into the shared 
files as part of finalizing each book. (These steps are not needed when 
using text insets, as only body-page content is used, and variables/formats 
can be set to match the container document)

* Cross-references from a shared file -- pointing to other chapters which 
are included in some books but not in others -- will result in bad links in 
the final PDF deliverable, although FrameMaker does not alert you as to 
"unresolved cross-references" (because the target files do exist); this can 
be resolved with conditional text.


Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com
Training, consulting & add-ons: FrameMaker, Structured FM and Acrobat