[Solved] Cross-references: delayed availability

Discuss the word processor
Post Reply
nunof32
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:52 am

[Solved] Cross-references: delayed availability

Post by nunof32 »

Hello,

[Not very important but if some suggestion available it will be welcome]

Problem : if you open a document containing cross-references you have to wait several minutes before the cross-references start working. Until then, clicking on the cross-reference produces nothing.
Advice sought : is there a way to save, or open, a document in such a way that this delay is eliminated / reduced ?

I experienced this with a 100-page document containing a cross-reference, in page 94, to footnote 3 that is in page 6.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. : Symptoms are similar to what I experience when OO/Writer has to update the page numbering of a (relatively) large-sized document. If page numbering must be updated, you can try and press F9 (or Tools > Update > Fields) but nothing will happen. After several minutes it might work though (not always)
Last edited by nunof32 on Wed Mar 17, 2021 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OpenOffice 4.1.10 with MacOS X 10.13.6
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by RoryOF »

This is a side effect of the need to rebuild the internal data tables when a large document is opened or repaginated. I doubt it can easily be changed.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by John_Ha »

A large document (8,000 pages, 2.5 million words) with about 1,000 footnotes/endnotes will take 30+ minutes to lay out.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
nunof32
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:52 am

Re: Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by nunof32 »

Ok, I see.

Thanks everyone.
OpenOffice 4.1.10 with MacOS X 10.13.6
User avatar
Hagar Delest
Moderator
Posts: 32628
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: France

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by Hagar Delest »

Waiting for minutes with a mere 100-page document?
Doesn't sound very standard IMHO.

I experience delays with master documents (+1,000 pages) and definitively not with minutes.
LibreOffice 7.6.2.1 on Xubuntu 23.10 and 7.6.4.1 portable on Windows 10
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by RoryOF »

I have just checked on a 295 (A5) page document of 85,000 words; to open the file from my network server and access a crossreferenced endnote (the very last endnote) from a reference point near the beginning of text takes just under a minute.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
nunof32
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:52 am

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by nunof32 »

Yes RoryOF, I know my computer is a laggard. Just you wait that I get my new still-to-be-announced iMac 27" with a M1 CPU, I am sure my 'problem' will definitively be solved :)
OpenOffice 4.1.10 with MacOS X 10.13.6
User avatar
RoryOF
Moderator
Posts: 34586
Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:30 pm
Location: Ireland

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by RoryOF »

My computer is 2009, 8GB i3 dual core running at 3100 Mhz, so not state of the art.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by John_Ha »

Hagar Delest wrote:Waiting for minutes with a mere 100-page document?
Doesn't sound very standard IMHO.
Hagar
It is very dependent on the complexity of the layout task. Poorly anchored images, lots of cross references, footnotes or endnotes can take ages to lay out and nothing is completed until the final page is given its number, prior to which AOO can loop. Here we have a cross reference to a footnote which might be more tricky. See [Solved] Huge document, page count not advancing
nunof32 wrote: is there a way to save, or open, a document in such a way that this delay is eliminated / reduced?
Try
- temporarily removing the cross reference
- try cross referencing the actual main text rather than footnote text
- convert the footnote to an endnote
- work in View > Web layout mode, not View > Print mode
- click Preview. This seems to speed layout pagination.

See 11A. Why is my page count so high? Why does my page count keep changing? Why do white gaps appear in my document? in See [Tutorial] Some useful hints on using images for the reason.

If you upload the file showing the problem it can be analysed. Press POSTREPLY and click the Upload attachment tab below where you type (128 kB max); or use a file share site, Dropbox or Google Drive for a larger file. If the file has confidential material in it, you can obscure the contents without affecting the structure too much (lines will spill differently because different characters have different widths) by changing every lower case alphabetic character to an " x ". Select all the text (Ctrl+A) and:

Edit > Find and Replace
Find box [a-z]
Replace box x
Options: Match case: YES, Regular expressions: YES
click Replace all

Repeat the above using [A-Z] and X to scramble the upper case letters, and [0-9] and 0 to scramble numeric data.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
John_Ha
Volunteer
Posts: 9583
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:51 pm
Location: UK

Re: [Solved] Cross-references : delayed availability

Post by John_Ha »

Hagar Delest wrote:Waiting for minutes with a mere 100-page document?
Doesn't sound very standard IMHO.

I experience delays with master documents (+1,000 pages) and definitively not with minutes.
I did a test with a 100 page document with just one footnote on page 6. I applied a cross reference on page 97 to the footnote on page 6.

The file opened very quickly and the CPU fell away in seconds.

So, it suggests either there is something wrong with the OP's file or the file is much more complex and has many footnotes and cross references.
LO 6.4.4.2, Windows 10 Home 64 bit

See the Writer Guide, the Writer FAQ, the Writer Tutorials and Writer for students.

Remember: Always save your Writer files as .odt files. - see here for the many reasons why.
Post Reply