If you're like me, you love Microsoft Word's note feature--in particular, being able to insert or delete a footnote or endnote and have all of the subsequent notes renumber automatically. Have you ever wondered, though, how to create a note reference number that refers to a note that already exists?
For example, let's say the following text is a Word document with notes (I've indicated note reference numbers with carets, like this^1):
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,^1 consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy^2 nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.^3
1 Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.
2 Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate.
3 Delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
We have a reference number for note 1 after "amet," but let's say we want to refer to note 1 again, this time after "elit," like this:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,^1 consectetuer adipiscing elit,^1 sed diam nonummy^2 nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.^3
1 Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.
2 Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate.
3 Delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
Is that even possible in Word? Yes, it is, and it's called cross-referencing a note. The procedure is basically the same for footnotes or endnotes, although here I'll use footnotes for the example. Here's how to do it:
1. Open a document that has footnotes.
2. Put your cursor in your text where you want to cross-reference an existing note.
3. Click the "Insert" menu.
4. Click "Cross-reference."
5. Click the "Reference type" drop-down list.
6. Click "Footnote" in the list.
7. Click the "Insert reference to:" list.
8. Click "Footnote number (formatted)"--probably the last item in the list.
9. In the "For which footnote:" list, click the number of the footnote you want to cross-reference.
10. Click the "Insert" button.
These instructions sound more complicated than the procedure actually is--it's fairly easy. Be careful, though. If you insert a new note before your original note, the cross-referenced note won't change automatically. For example, here's our document with the cross-referenced note 1:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,^1 consectetuer adipiscing elit,^1 sed diam nonummy^2 nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.^3
1 Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.
2 Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate.
3 Delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
Now, if we insert a new note after "ipsum," our original note 1 reference number will change to "2," but our cross-referenced note number after "elit" will remain as "1":
Lorem ipsum^1 dolor sit amet,^2 consectetuer adipiscing elit,^1 sed diam nonummy^3 nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.^4
1 Accumsan et iusto odio dignissim.
2 Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.
3 Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate.
4 Delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
Why? Because the cross-referenced note number is what Microsoft calls a "field," and fields don't update automatically. To update the field (the cross-referenced note number), select it and press the F9 key. The document will then look like this, with the number after "elit" updated to a "2":
Lorem ipsum^1 dolor sit amet,^2 consectetuer adipiscing elit,^2 sed diam nonummy^3 nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.^4
1 Accumsan et iusto odio dignissim.
2 Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.
3 Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate.
4 Delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.
If you want to update all of the fields in your document (if you've got lots of cross-referenced note numbers, for example), select all (Edit > Select All) and then press F9. You can also set fields to update when you print by clicking Tools > Options > Print and putting a checkmark in the box labeled "Update fields."
Incidentally, these cross-referenced notes work beautifully with the "Notes to Text" feature of our NoteStripper program and, after being stripped, with our QuarkConverter program. You can learn more about these programs here:
http://www.editorium.com
_________________________________________
READERS WRITE
If you're creating custom VBA projects, you'll appreciate the following information from Wordmeister Steve Hudson, who wrote:
The "Disk Full on template save" error and "Network Lag on Document Open" error AND "Setting Digital Certificate" error.
Hah. Three problems in one. To cut to the chase, it's caused by a missing reference which can be located via the VBE (ALT+F11) > Tools > References dialog. Get rid of that reference by clearing the checkmark. If you had anything using that reference you need to relink it to its new destination.
A simple way to cause this is to not provide the original document template. This causes a missing reference to that template to appear in this list. It will try and hunt it down across your paths in the Tools > Options > File Locations dialog, thus causing shocking lag when some of these locations are network addresses.
It also causes problems when the VBA project is forced to recompile. The compile process fails as it cannot resolve the reference. VBA projects are forced to recompile when given a new digital signature or a new object is added.
Thanks to Steve for this important tip.
_________________________________________
RESOURCES
The Word-PC list and archives are, in my opinion, some of the finest Microsoft Word resources available anywhere. You can join the list or search the archives here:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html
