"use surrounding" problem in cross-references styling

[DylanMuir]

Hi,

I'm using plenty of cross-references since 2.5 came out! I usually make references to auto-titles, and use the auto-title custom cross-ref format to show something like the title of the section, or "figure 4" or whatever. Since I make references all through my text, I always set the style of the custom cross-ref format to have a "use surrounding" character style.

But in the text, if I have a cross-reference within a block of text to which I've assigned a character style variation, the cross-reference doesn't pick up the variation but always uses the base character style.

Even more confusingly, this happens for parts of the cross-ref which have been taken from the auto-title custom cross-ref format, but not for the page number part of a cross-ref format.

What I would expect to see is something like this (where the cross-ref object is enclosed in [square brackets]):
see [Identification of neighbours above].

What I actually end up with is this:
see [Identification of neighbours above].

Is there a way I can force the whole cross-ref to take the character style variation? Is this a bug? Is this the intended behaviour?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
DRM

[petrus]

When you are in the process of inserting the cross reference, after you have typed it out and selected the elements to be displayed, select it all in the insertion pane and then set the character style and variation. Press "ok".

When you set the cross reference format to "use surrounding" you can't change it ad-hoc in the text.

[DylanMuir]

Hmm. On my copy, I can change both the character style and variation for cross-references, after they've been inserted in the text (with the caveat that some elements of the cross-ref don't pick up the character style and other parts do, as I explained above).

In any case, even if I set the character style and variation explicitly while creating the cross-reference, the final result is the same as before -- only some parts of the cross-ref respect the style variation.

[verma]

Hmm. On my copy, I can change both the character style and variation for cross-references, after they've been inserted in the text (with the caveat that some elements of the cross-ref don't pick up the character style and other parts do, as I explained above).

In any case, even if I set the character style and variation explicitly while creating the cross-reference, the final result is the same as before -- only some parts of the cross-ref respect the style variation.

Weird. The procedure described by petrus above is fully functional here as well. I don't have a problem with the cross-references and the "use surrounding" character style. It works both for the cross-reference itself (changing the variation) as for a larger block of text that contains (and consequently alters) the CR.

I cannot change the character style of a give cross-reference in the text (unless I double-click it and change the character style in the edit reference window).

The only thing I can think of is whether or not you have selected the whole CR-item in the Edit reference window (including the reference and extra elements) for marking as "use surround". You can indeed mark only specific items as "use surround" and set others with other character styles. Could that be it?

Cheers!

[DylanMuir]

Hi Verma,

What I want with my cross references is something like... "as shown in [Figure 4 above]" (where the cross-ref object is enclosed in [...]). The way I do that is by setting a custom display format for references in my auto-title setup for "figure". That auto-title set up has "use a different format for cross reference", and has "figure (cur#)" as the setup. I have the whole thing set to "use surrounding" character style

When I insert a cross-reference, in the "reference format" pane, I insert an "autotitle format" element from the "insert element" drop-down menu, then a conditional page # element to get the "above" or "below". I set the elements all to "use surrounding character style". I then insert the reference into my document.

Now I select the whole paragraph (or just the reference) and set the character style. So far so good; the cross-ref takes on the character style I choose. But when I change the character style variation, it is only respected by the "above" part of the cross-reference, and not the "figure 4" part.

In fact, even if in the "insert cross-ref" dialog I manually set the character style and variation, this is still only respected by the "above" part of the reference, not the "figure 4" part.

I'd be interested to hear if you can reproduce this on your system, or if you have a suggestion as a work-around.

DRM

[verma]

Hi Verma,

What I want with my cross references is something like... "as shown in [Figure 4 above]" (where the cross-ref object is enclosed in [...]). The way I do that is by setting a custom display format for references in my auto-title setup for "figure". That auto-title set up has "use a different format for cross reference", and has "figure (cur#)" as the setup. I have the whole thing set to "use surrounding" character style

When I insert a cross-reference, in the "reference format" pane, I insert an "autotitle format" element from the "insert element" drop-down menu, then a conditional page # element to get the "above" or "below". I set the elements all to "use surrounding character style". I then insert the reference into my document.

Now I select the whole paragraph (or just the reference) and set the character style. So far so good; the cross-ref takes on the character style I choose. But when I change the character style variation, it is only respected by the "above" part of the cross-reference, and not the "figure 4" part.

In fact, even if in the "insert cross-ref" dialog I manually set the character style and variation, this is still only respected by the "above" part of the reference, not the "figure 4" part.

I'd be interested to hear if you can reproduce this on your system, or if you have a suggestion as a work-around.

DRM

I reproduced your steps (having a similar setup helps...) but when I apply the character style, everything always changes: the surrounding text, the cross-reference autotitle, extra added elements from the "edit reference" window. On my system it works exactly as it should. The only thing I can think of is to check whether your autotitle setup has been saved, and if indeed you've selected "use surrounding" as character style there. If that's indeed the case, then your case is really odd. If you don't have top secret data on that file, you could consider sending it to the Redlers and explain your problem - that is perhaps faster than hoping they daily skim these discussions.

Sorry I can't be of any real help!

[DylanMuir]

No, that's very helpful — now I know (sob) that it's just my problem!

When I created a new document, things appear to work as they should... I'm going to try just copying and pasting from the old one.

Thanks,
DRM

[Eyal Redler]

It would be interesting to see that file, it could be a bug and we would like to fix those.
If the file isn't top secret (not that we can't keep a secret ) I would be interested to see it.

[DylanMuir]

Hi Eyal,

Send me your email by private message or let me know where to send the file, and I'll cut it down to something which breaks for you!

DRM.

[petrus]

support@redlers.com

[DylanMuir]

In fact, I cut it down to something small enough to attach here. I'd be interested to hear if this file works or not on other people's systems. I realised that the cross-refs only fail to take on the character variation when it's a "level n" auto-title they refer to, not a "figure" auto-title. (See attached file).

DRM

[Eyal Redler]

Checking the file, I managed to reproduce this. It does seem like a bug and we'll look into fixing it in the next version.

[herrner]

I just downloaded the next version and I'm still having this problem. Is there any new information on this topic?

[petrus]

I noticed this as well. The formatting issue of the “auto title title” element of the cross references seems not to have been repaired in this final release.

There are two ways around this until a bug fix is released.

The first is to apply the desired style settings using the f-keys from within the ‘insert cross reference’ dialogue box.

The second is to select the cross reference within the document text and apply the style settings with manual overrides instead of the f-keys.