Weird Cross References in PDF Format

[kgmarie]

This is a problem I've had at multiple companies and with multiple projects/versions of Flare. Until now, I've been able to avoid it, but now fixing it is crucial.

Whenever I output to PDF, any cross-reference to another topic in the same TOC displays a seemingly random string of numbers after the reference. For example: If "How to Tie a Shoe" and "How to Tie a Tie" are in the same TOC, and there is a cross-reference in "How to Tie a Shoe" to "How to Tie a Tie," the cross-reference displays as something like "How to Tie a Tie8929475720".

When I output the exact same topics (same TOC) into Word, the numbers are not there. I can't think what's causing it.

I'm having a hard time accepting that I'm the only one who's seen this, given that I've seen it in multiple environments/situations, but I can't find any mention of it anywhere when I try to look for a solution.

Any ideas???

[Daniel Ferguson]

Can you post what CSS declarations you have in your MadCap|xref style?

Also, to the topic being linked to, open the topic properties from the Content Explorer. In the Topic Properties tab, what do you have in the Topic Title box?

[GeorgeBell]

I'm relieved not to be alone with PDF nasties

You wouldn't happen to be viewing in Edge by any chance, instead of say Adobe Reader, would you?

We had an issue, which nobody else here seemed to have had, where pages in PDFs, view on screen, would be totally blank. Thankfully we have Madcap Software support, and the upshot was that this only appeared to happen if the PDF was opened in Edge. But Mapcap could only say that it was one of 70 odd uses of "Font Family" in the CSS.

I then decided to do some drastic forensics, and began with a copy of the CSS file, replacing chunks, and recompiling until the pages re-appeared. FINALLY we tracked it down to one item in the Print Output section of the CSS. I hope the screen shot is attached.

Given yet another PDF problem I encountered (posted here) today, I have a feeling there are some serious underlying issues with Flare's PDF creator.

[kgmarie]

Can you post what CSS declarations you have in your MadCap|xref style?

Also, to the topic being linked to, open the topic properties from the Content Explorer. In the Topic Properties tab, what do you have in the Topic Title box?

Hi Daniel -

Here are the only things I have on CSS properties:
- color: #f78400
- font-weight: bold
- mc-dita-type: xref
- mc-format: {filename}
- mc-master-page: {default}
- text-decoration: none

For Topic Title box, I have (Always use first topic heading). Would the answer be to always type in a topic title?


Edit: Just tried entering a title in the Topic Title box, and that didn't seem to work.


Edit edit: Turns out switching the mc-format to {title} instead of {filename} works! And if you enter a Topic Title, it'll use that. If you leave it, it will be the first line of the topic, looks like. Thanks for the responses!

[Daniel Ferguson]

I'm glad that you've got it figured out. Using {filename} as the mc-format was the issue. Changing it to {title} may work for you, but in most xref formats that I've worked in over the years use {paratext}. There are some advantages to using that over {title}, such as if you want to link to a subheading in a topic.