How to create ebook chapter cross-references with inDesign CS6?

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How to create ebook chapter cross-references with inDesign CS6?

Hi, I'm creating a fairly technical ebook, and would like the reader to be able to easily link "See Chapter X for more information" with Chapter X. My problem is that all the "See Chapter X for more information" phrases are set up as a character style... it doesn't seem that I can easily cross-reference because I didn't set these phrases up using paragraph styles (which doesn't make much sense to me as each cross-reference would need to be a new paragraph).

I think I just need to anchor the "See Chapter X for more information," phrases, but that isn't proving to be easy to position, the text anchor boxes are showing up in crazy places... having a hard time figuring out how to position anchored text.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Using InDesign

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 3:44 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 30, 2012 5:00 PM in response to ConradLee

Hi Conrad,

I'm running CS 5.5 so can't be sure of the differences with your version.

The problem here is simply one of ID terminology.

I suspect what you want to do is this:

1. Select your destination text with the type tool. The destination text is what you want the reference to link to. Then, in the Hyperlinks control menu menu, choose "New Hyperlink Destination" and give it a simple and unique name.

2. Find the text that you want to connect to the destination text. Select it and in the same control panel choose "New Hyperlink..." You'll have the choice of selecting from (what will ultimately be) a number of text anchors.

I hope that makes sense. I quickly checked to see if ID exports a working cross-reference in EPUB and it does, although I didn't have time to examine the HTML.

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