Create New Cross Reference Causes Text to Be Too Big in Table Cell

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    • #72730

      I have a long document with a table of contents at the beginning of the each section. The Table of Contents contains tables 2 columns wide by several rows tall. The left column is the title description, and the right column is the page number. In that column I am creating a New Cross Reference that I am linking to a Hyperlink Destination from each page. My problem is that when I create the New Cross Reference the text within the cell seems to act like it has a very large left margin. This makes me have to set the column width wide to keep the number text in the cell from becoming overset.

      Just for clarification, when I type numbers in the right column they are formatted correctly and do not take up too much of the cell. It is only a problem when I create the new cross reference. Also for clarification, the formatting of the cross reference is set to not have its own formatting.

      I cannot find any text or cell formatting that should be causing this. I have set the Cell Insets to 0 for top, bottom, left, and right, and set the vertical justification to “Align Center”. What am I missing that is causing such a left margin before the cross reference text?

      Thanks All.

    • #73486

      Been over a month and no replies to this question. Moving on. Not resolved. Just for my clarification to anyone who may read this, is there something I need to do differently in order to get a question answered on this forum?

      Thanks all.

    • #73487
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      Sorry it wasn’t resolved. The forums are like the wild west… sometimes people have answers and sometimes they don’t even see them when you first post them.

      My question to you is… why are you doing this as a table?! And why use x-refs? Why not just use the Table of Contents feature?

    • #73488
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      The thing to look for is the Format pop-up menu in the cross-references dialog box. Choose “Page Numbe” then click that little pencil icon and remove the part of the format that says “Page “… then you’ll get just the number itself.

    • #73489

      Thanks David for your answer and suggestions to use Table of Contents feature. In answer, I am using tables because the text / part numbers and descriptions layout of the 354 page catalog is in tables and I am afraid I have been single minded in continuing that usage. I will definitely need to look into the Table of Contents feature to learn how to use it. Lynda.com here I come!

      I did look in the formatting inside the pop up menu and I had already removed the “Page ” from the line. I only have <pageNum /> in the formatting. I cannot see anything that should be causing this although I am sure it is probably simpler than I know.

      Lastly, I do understand “Wild West” analogy. That is why I tried to be respectful in my question about receiving answers. I genuinely want to know if there is a “better way”.

      By the way, I really appreciate the articles that I read from you about designing in indesign. Thanks David

    • #73490

      Just for further clarification:

      The width of the cell with the two page numbers inside is 0.576 inches and the width of the actually text in the cell is roughly 0.2 inches. If I shrink the cell width down to try to make the cell just bigger than the width of the text, I get an overset text message for any cell width lower than roughly 0.576 Inches. The text is right justified and cell inset is set to 0.

    • #73491
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      This does seem to be a mystery. I just made an x-ref to a page inside a table and it seems to work just fine. No problem with overset. Weird!

    • #73492

      I just realized that I left out something in my information that I didn’t think of. I am not just using one number. The problem appears when I use two cross references next to each other to show a span of pages. Like this, “5 – 10”. If I only have one cross reference in the cell, no problem. I can resize the width of the cell down to just larger than the number. If I have the two numbers side by side separated by a hyphen, then I have the problem.

      Sorry to leave out that crucial detail.

    • #73493
      David Blatner
      Keymaster

      Hm. It still works okay in my system.

      Not sure what it could be. The x-ref should not take up more space than necessary.

      Thank you for your kind words about our work here earlier!

    • #73497

      I have tried removing all formatting and creating a new table, and I have tried this without a table and using a text box instead. Same results. The cross reference always creates a wide area that I cannot narrow the width of my box down to the numbers if I use a range like 5 – 22 or the like. Don’t think I will find an answer. Moving on to learn to use the TOC feature.

      The TOC feature is working great in all ways that I want it too except for one. I cannot figure out how to do a range of page numbers in the TOC like the above mentioned 5 – 22. All of my returned page numbers are single pages. Is there a way to do a range with the TOC feature?

      Thanks for your attempt to help David.

    • #74732

      I never was able to figure out the problem here. Any suggestions from anyone?

    • #117337
      Pierre Paquette
      Participant

      Hi Scott,

      I know it’s been years, so you probably definitely moved on from that, but I was having the same problem and Googled for an answer. Basically, your post is the only thing I found… and no answer!

      Anyhow, I started playing with my text, and it was odd, because I was doing (what I thought was) exactly the same thing as in another document *where I didn’t have that problem*, but then I realized one thing… One of my habits, that for some reason I had not done in this new document…

      I changed the composer to “World-Ready Paragraph Composer” as I do in all my documents (I don’t need it at the office, but I also use InDesign at home for astronomy-related stuff, and as there are a lot of Greek letters used in astronomy, and sometimes references to Arabic texts, I find it’s handy for astronomy). So, anyhow… Switching the composer to “World-Ready Paragraph Composer” made the text with two cross-references fit in the (narrow) cell. Bingo!

      Now, don’t ask me *why* that is the case!

      Regards,

      Pierre

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