Referencing a Page Number In Another Document

Using fields, you can easily reference other page numbers of a document in which you are working. For instance, you could use a field to make the text "See page X for more information" appear in your document. The X, of course, refers to a different page number in the current document. But what if page X is in a different document and you want to refer to it?

Word does not include any easy way to address this issue. Instead, you must use a workaround that can seem rather tedious at times. Before presenting the steps you can use, a little bit of a setup is in order. Let's suppose that you have two documents: Doc1 and Doc2. In Doc2 there is a section entitled "Saving the World." You want to refer to the page number of this section from within Doc1. To do this, you would follow these steps:

1. Open Doc2.
2. Position the insertion point anywhere in the "Saving the World" section heading.
3. Insert a {PAGE} field at the insertion point.
4. Select the entire {PAGE} field and create a bookmark to the selection entitled GreatPlace. (There is nothing special about the bookmark name; it can be anything you like.)
5. With the {PAGE} field still selected, format it as hidden text.
6. Close Doc2.
7. Open Doc1.
8. Position the insertion point where you want the cross-reference.
9. At the insertion point, insert this field: {Includetext c:\\directory\\doc2.docx GreatPlace \!\* Mergeformat}
10. Select the field code you just inserted and press Ctrl+Spacebar.

At this point, your cross-reference should be in place. Note that these are general steps; they don't go into specifics on how to insert individual fields, create bookmarks, and the like. If you need information on this, you can either refer to other issues of WordTips or to Word's on-line help.

Also note that you must use the field in Step 9 exactly as shown, as well as following step 10. Remember that the original field (that you created in steps 3 through 5) is hidden text, meaning it will not display in Doc2. If you don't include the \* Mergeformat switch and press Ctrl+Spacebar, the cross-reference will be hidden in Doc1 as well. The \! switch is used so that Word doesn't try to update the reference to a field in Doc1 when it really refers to something in Doc2.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7982) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Referencing a Page Number In Another Document.