This problem occurs most frequently when a cross-reference is inserted and
then content is added to the document directly before the "target" of the
cross-reference by placing the cursor directly in front of the "target" and
pressing the Enter key (or typing or inserting some other content). For
example:
You have a heading in your document that says "My Heading" and is formatted
using a Heading style. You insert a cross-reference to this heading. Word
automatically inserts a hidden bookmark to this heading for use by the
cross-reference. Subsequently, you decide to add some content before this
line by putting your cursor before the text "My Heading" and pressing Enter.
You then change the style of the newly created line and add the content.
Everything looks fine, including the extant cross-reference, but when you
print the document, the cross-reference is messed up; it now contains the
additional content. (In your particular case, I would venture that all you've
ever done is added a blank line before the "target" text, but if you add lots
of text or a page break or something, that would appear in the
cross-reference as well.)
What's happening is that the newly added content is actually being insert
within the hidden bookmark. This is because the hidden bookmark starts at the
very beginning of the line, and it's not possible to get "in front" of it.
Then when you print your document, you have the option to update fields on
printing selected, and Word automatically updates the content of the
cross-reference with the content from the hidden bookmark. This can real PITA
when you added heaps of content or inserted a page break before the "target"
and suddenly you've got a bit chunk of text or an extra page in your document.
To verify this, manually insert a bookmark around some text at the start of
a paragraph and then insert a cross-reference to the bookmark in another
location. Now go back and add some content in front of the bookmark, then
update the cross-reference using F9. The additional content will probably
show up in the cross-reference, and if you select the option to display
bookmarks, you'll see that the bookmark starts at the beginning of the
additional content.
The format of the text after the cross-reference sometimes gets changed as
well because, under certain conditions, changing the style of a portion of
paragraph can cause the style of the whole paragraph to change as well.
(Fellow MVP Shauna Kelly talks about this on her website.) So when you
changed the style applied to the new content, this style is then cascaded
through to paragraph containing the cross-reference when the cross-reference
is updated.
The way to prevent this from happening is to always insert content *after*
the paragraph preceding a cross-reference "target". So in the example above,
instead of putting your cursor directly before the text "My Heading", put it
at the end of the line above and then add your content. In addition, I always
try to avoid inserting page breaks before a heading. Instead, I'll set up the
Heading style with "Page break before" or, if I don't want a page break
before every instance of a particular style, manually format a single
instance.
You might also consider updating and verifying the cross-references in your
document before you print it. I do this by pressing Ctrl+A and then F9, and
then using the 'Find' functionality to browse through the fields.
--
Cheers!
Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP
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