Cut and paste corrupts cross references

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Top Spin

Is there a way to cut and paste (not copy and paste) blocks of text
(whole paragraphs including the paragraph marks) without screwing up
cross references?

I have a fairly long document (40-50 pages) with dozens on headings
and a table of contents. There are also quite a few cross references
(text and page number) scatterred about. It's a programming language
reference manual with a heading 2 for each language construct. The
headings are in alphabetical order.

Sometimes the spelling of the headings changes requiring that they be
moved. I try to select the entire section starting with the heading
and including all of the text including the last paragraph mark. I
then click Ctrl-X to cut it. Then I position the cursor just before
the heading that this text is to go before and click Ctrl-V to paste
it in.

Usually this works. Once in awhile, and I can't isolate what might be
different, one of the heading references gets all messed up so that it
includes not only the heading text itself, but all or most of the
following lines, all of which are separate paragraphs.

What am I doing wrong? How can I prevent this from happening?

I can always just re-insert the cross-reference and all is OK. I don't
think the heading itself is messed up, just the cross reference.

Thanks
 
The point where you're going wrong is probably here:

Then I position the cursor just before
the heading that this text is to go before and click Ctrl-V to paste
it in.
Click to expand...

If you are putting the insertion point at the beginning of the paragraph you
want to paste before, you're almost certainly getting it inside the bookmark
for that heading, with the result that the pasted text is inside the
bookmark and will be picked up by the cross-reference.

There are two ways to avoid this.

1. Before pasting, press Enter at the end of the paragraph before where you
want to paste. Paste into that empty paragraph, then delete the empty
paragraph.

2. Use Outline view. If you display just the heading level you're dealing
with, you can drag the heading itself into a different position, and the
associated body text will follow. For more, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
The point where you're going wrong is probably here:

Then I position the cursor just before

If you are putting the insertion point at the beginning of the paragraph you
want to paste before, you're almost certainly getting it inside the bookmark
for that heading, with the result that the pasted text is inside the
bookmark and will be picked up by the cross-reference.
Click to expand...

That sounds like it probably is the problem.
There are two ways to avoid this.

1. Before pasting, press Enter at the end of the paragraph before where you
want to paste. Paste into that empty paragraph, then delete the empty
paragraph.
Click to expand...

That's sort of what I came up with on my own. Just trying to avoid the
paragraph entirely.
2. Use Outline view. If you display just the heading level you're dealing
with, you can drag the heading itself into a different position, and the
associated body text will follow. For more, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm
Click to expand...

I haven't used outline view at all. What are the main advantages?

Maybe it's time for me to read a Word book again. I haven't read one
since about Word 2.0 (or something like that).

Thanks
 
No need to read a Word book--just the article I pointed you to!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
No need to read a Word book--just the article I pointed you to!
Click to expand...

I meant in general. It seems that there have been a lot of changes and
additions since I last really studied Word. What would be great is a
book that has features tagged by rlease so I could just review the new
things.
 
The point where you're going wrong is probably here:

Then I position the cursor just before

If you are putting the insertion point at the beginning of the paragraph you
want to paste before, you're almost certainly getting it inside the bookmark
for that heading, with the result that the pasted text is inside the
bookmark and will be picked up by the cross-reference.

There are two ways to avoid this.

1. Before pasting, press Enter at the end of the paragraph before where you
want to paste. Paste into that empty paragraph, then delete the empty
paragraph.
Click to expand...

One other related problem. Sometimes I need to change the text in the
header. It seems that this does not always get reflected in the cross
references. This seems especially true is I add or change letters at
the beginning or end of the header. Do you have a trick to avoid this
problem, too?

Let's say I need to change "Overview" to "Brief Overview". Do I need
to place the cursor between the "O" and the "v", type "Brief O", then
delete the 1st "O" using the destructive backspace -- all to avoid
touching the space before the 1st letter?

Similar thing at the end?
2. Use Outline view. If you display just the heading level you're dealing
with, you can drag the heading itself into a different position, and the
associated body text will follow. For more, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm
Click to expand...

Now that I study this, I do recall reading about this once before, but
it seems that I had some problems with it. It this method GUARANTEED
to get everything between the 2 headings? It seems to me that I had
problems with some text that I thought was "associated with" a heading
not getting moved and having the resulting document badly scrambled.

Thanks
 
Answer to #1 is yes, this would be the safe way to do it (or reinsert the
cross-reference after changing the heading). As for #2, I haven't used
Outline view enough to swear to anything. It would depend a lot on what you
have displayed, I think, and how carefully you've used outline levels in the
document.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Answer to #1 is yes, this would be the safe way to do it (or reinsert the
cross-reference after changing the heading).
Click to expand...

I appreciate the help and I know you didn't write Word, but don't you
think this is a little bizarre? In order to change a heading, I have
to edit the changes somewhere in the middle so as to avoid touching
the start or end booby traps. This seems like a huge architectuiral
bug to me. And reinserting all the cross references in a 500-page
document. This is reasonable?

Again, I'm complaining about your suggestions, but it's sad that we
pay huge prices for this software (and annual updates) and get stuff
that basically doesn't work.
As for #2, I haven't used
Outline view enough to swear to anything. It would depend a lot on what you
have displayed, I think, and how carefully you've used outline levels in the
document.
Click to expand...

(sigh)
 
Now that I study this, I do recall reading about this once before, but
it seems that I had some problems with it. It this method GUARANTEED
to get everything between the 2 headings? It seems to me that I had
problems with some text that I thought was "associated with" a heading
not getting moved and having the resulting document badly scrambled.
Click to expand...

The "trick" is that only collapsed stuff gets moved; non-collapsed
stuff stays.

For example suppose that you have outline view set to "Show Level 2",
and you grab a Heading 2 item and move it. Everything included under
that Heading 2 will be moved.

On the other hand suppose that you have outline view set to "Show
Level 3", and you grab a Heading 2 item and move it. Anything that is
directly under the Heading 2 item will move except that everything
under any visible Heading 3 items will stay.

It is only the stuff that you don't see that gets moved.

The only times that I have had the wrong stuff moved or not moved was
because I wasn't paying attention to what levels were visible and not
visible.

Bob S
 
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