Re: hyperlink markers vs. cross refs

[jeremy@xxxxxxxxx (Jeremy H. Griffith)]

On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:02:29 +0200, "Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@telia.com> 
wrote:

>> On Thu, 15 Feb 2001 20:02:10 GMT jeremy@omsys.com (Jeremy H.
>> Griffith)wrote:
>>  
>> > The main situation in which xrefs are not really usable is when we don't
>> > want $paratext (or $paranum) from the source to appear at the site of the
>> > reference.  Perhaps we don't want *all* the $paratext, just a word or two.
>> > Or a paraphrase of it.  In that case, to use xrefs, we'd have to use a
>> > unique xref format (with the desired text for the hotspot) for each xref,
>> > and that would quickly become unmanageable.  So then we turn to hyperlinks.
>
>Well, there is one other possible solution. *If* the source paragraph
>contains no autonumbering, define an autonumber string for it that
>consists of the phrase you wish to appear in the cross-reference text.
>Place the autonumber at End of Paragraph, and let it use a character
>format defined as invisible, 2 pt. text. (Hopefully, this won't cause
>an unwanted line break in the source paragraph.)
>Then cross-ref the source paragraph using $paranum. This will fetch
>the invisible, manually entered autonumber string.

Clever.  You could also just put the autonum at the front, with the
glossary term in it (and no counters) typed in lower case, using a 
char format that makes the glossary term appear in the desired case
at the glossary definition.  Then your <$paranum> xref could serve
as part of the text, too, so that it is visible.  And it eliminates
the possibility of an unreasonable line break at the end.

Unfortunately, there is a big gotcha waiting for you with either of
the autonum ideas.  You will have an override on every single use
of that para format!  So, if you import formats as we often do for
fine-tuning doc properties for conversion, you must *never* ask to
remove overrides... or you will have a Real Big Job to do manually
reconstructing all the terms that you lost with one button click.
Since I push the wrong button regularly, this makes me nervous.  ;-)

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  (jeremy@omsys.com)  http://www.omsys.com/

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