Publisher 2.2 cross-reference and PDF bookmarks

[Dave42]

I am adding cross-references to headings in my document. I set the hyperlink attribute in the cross-reference panel because I want the referring text in a PDF to be clickable. This generates an Anchor for the heading with PDF bookmark attribute set.

That's a problem because I already have Anchors with PDF bookmark for my headings (created via TOC). The result is that if I cross-reference a heading I end up with two Anchors and two PDF bookmarks for the same heading (one from TOC, one from cross-reference).  I can't see any way to globally disable the PDF bookmark attribute for Anchors created via cross-reference.  I guess I can manually disable PDF bookmarks for individual Anchors created via cross-reference but that doesn't really scale.

Any suggestions on how to work-around this ?

Edited August 3, 2023 by Dave42

[MikeTO]

Hi Dave, I'm unable to duplicate this issue. If I create a cross reference with Generate Hyperlinks enabled, it creates an anchor with "Export as PDF Bookmark" disabled. I've tried this several times including in a document with a TOC.

That being said, I thought I duplicated it the first time I tried it so I was either mistaken or I did something that caused Publisher to no longer have the issue. Please try this. Add a cross reference with hyperlink off. Then add another with hyperlink on. Is there any change to the anchor's pdf bookmark status?

[Dave42]

Mike,

thanks for looking at this. Unfortunately I now can't repro the issue either.

When I observed the problem, creating a cross-reference to a heading was generating an identical duplicate anchor to that created by TOC (exact same name, same PDF bookmark attribute set), resulting in duplicate bookmark in PDF. I deleted the offending cross-reference entries and noticed that the duplicate anchor entries remained. I deleted those manually. At that point I am pretty sure that I recreated a cross-reference to a heading as a sanity check and observed the same issue. So it looked like a hard problem.

I have now tried to reproduce the problem on a new document and failed. Cross-reference to heading (with hyperlink set) creates a new anchor, different (truncated) name to TOC anchor, and no PDF bookmark attribute. I then went back to the original problem document and created a new cross-reference entry there. It now no longer creates an exact duplicate anchor to TOC anchor. Instead it creates an anchor with a new name (truncated from heading) and PDF bookmark attribute clear. Resulting PDF is as expected - no duplicate bookmark and clickable cross-reference.

 

[Dave42]

Managed to repro the problem. Looks like a TOC update issue.

1. Create a TOC (PDF bookmark set) referencing a heading.

That creates an anchor for the heading (anchor name same as heading) with PDF bookmark attribute set

2. Create a cross-reference to the same heading with hyperlink attribute set

That creates another anchor for heading, truncated name, no PDF bookmark attribute

At this point all is as expected.

3. Update the TOC

This appears to transform the cross-reference anchor into a duplicate TOC anchor. i.e. we end up with a duplicate TOC anchor for the heading (same name, PDF bookmark set) and the original cross-reference anchor has been deleted.

 

[MikeTO]

3 hours ago, Dave42 said:

Managed to repro the problem. Looks like a TOC update issue.

1. Create a TOC (PDF bookmark set) referencing a heading.

That creates an anchor for the heading (anchor name same as heading) with PDF bookmark attribute set

2. Create a cross-reference to the same heading with hyperlink attribute set

That creates another anchor for heading, truncated name, no PDF bookmark attribute

At this point all is as expected.

3. Update the TOC

This appears to transform the cross-reference anchor into a duplicate TOC anchor. i.e. we end up with a duplicate TOC anchor for the heading (same name, PDF bookmark set) and the original cross-reference anchor has been deleted.

Thanks for the steps. This is a known issue that was reported last week so Serif is likely already looking into it.