Re: hyperlinks vs crossreferences

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: Scott Turner <sturner@mail.airmail.net>

>>Is it just me or is creating hyperlinks in Framemaker MUCH more cumbersome
>>than creating Cross References??
>
>There is a difference in what each feature is trying to do. The 
>hyperlink interactively links a target to a key. When you click on a 
>hyperlink you are taken to the hyperlink target location.
>
>The cross-reference brings the target data to your location. In a PDF 
>file you can also use the cross-reference as a hyperlink. Your Table 
>of Contents and Indices are created by cross-reference.
>
>The hyperlink cannot create either the Table of Contents or Indices.

Unless I misunderstand Scott, this is not true.
Table of Contents and Indices are indeed implemented using hyperlinks
(hypertext markers with hypertext commands), and NOT using cross-refs.
If they were cross-refs, they would automatically be updated.
Because they are implemented using hyperlinks, they must be re-created
using the Generate/Update command.

The difference compared to manually inserted hyperlinks is that these
hyperlinks doesn't need a target marker. Instead, they directly address
the internal FM objects by numerid IDs. You can check this by looking
at the contents of a hypertext marker in a TOC/IX: it will say something
like "openObjectID filename:123456".
When you want to add your own hyperlinks (not cross-refs), you need
to insert both a target marker ("newlink xxx") and a marker taking you
to that target ("gotolink xxx").

This is somewhat more complex than making cross-refs, but on the other
hand, you can completely customize the text of your link, so that it
doesn't have to reflect the text where the target marker is. This is
not possible to do with cross-refs.

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Thomas Michanek, [Michagon], Linkoping, Sweden
Documentation Consultant, FrameMaker/UNIX expert
EMAIL:  mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com
WWW:    http://go.to/framers , or go directly to:
        http://w1.133.telia.com/~u13304072/framers
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