STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Cross-Referencing Step Numbers in Word 

By Gloria McConnell

If you are like most technical writers, your procedures have automatically numbered steps (whether in tables or text). You will need to refer to step numbers from time to time. If these references are "hard coded" (that is, you type the step number in text), and the step number changes, then the reference is wrong. Microsoft Word® provides two relatively simple ways for you to cross-reference a step number.

• Cross-reference to a numbered item works well when procedures are presented in numbered text lists.
• Cross-reference to a bookmark is better if you use a procedure table in which step numbers are isolated in individual cells.

Cross-Reference to a Numbered Item

Let’s look at a procedure where numbered paragraphs are presented in text (not a table), as shown in Example 1:

Using Word’s cross-reference function, you can make a cross-reference to a step number as described below. Let’s assume that a reference to Step 2 is needed. To automatically reference this step:

1. Enter the text that will precede the step number. For example: Follow these guidelines:
2. From the Insert menu, select Reference > Cross-reference.
3. In the Cross-reference dialog box, make selections as follows:
   

Dialog Box Field Name	What to Select
Reference type	Numbered item
Insert reference to	Paragraph number
Insert as hyperlink	Select this if you want to make the referenced number a hyperlink.
Include above/below	Select this if you want to append the word "above" or "below" (correctly, per context) to the reference.
For which numbered item	Select the needed step. Note that even though several numbered items exist, it is fairly easy to identify the needed step because the step content is listed.

 



4. When settings are complete, click Insert. The step number will be inserted, and it will be updated (as applicable) when you update cross-references.

If you use a procedure table in which each step number appears alone in a cell, the procedure will be slightly different. Your procedure table might be similar to the table in Example 2.



When a document contains many procedure tables, it is very difficult to identify the needed step number in the Cross-reference dialog box. In this case, all step numbers appear by themselves.

For this situation, create and reference a bookmark:

1. Select or click in the cell containing the step number to be referenced. In our example, it is Step 2.
2. From the Insert menu, select Bookmark.
3. In the Bookmark dialog box, enter a meaningful name for the bookmark. The name must begin with a letter and can contain numbers. It cannot contain spaces or special characters, except for the underscore.



4. Click Add.
5. Go to the text where you want to reference the step number.
6. Repeat the procedure explained in "Cross-Reference to a Numbered Item", above, except select a Reference type of Bookmark (and the appropriate bookmark, of course).

TIP: If you need to reference items in an outline-numbered list (for example, in a legal document), you
have additional options as to which portion of the number to reference. For example, in a document using outline numbering of the format "1 (a) (i)," you can choose to include the complete number sequence or just a portion
of it.

For details, refer to the topic "Paragraph number options in cross-references" in Microsoft Word’s online help.