RE: [xsl] What is the best approach for doing.....

["M. David Peterson" <m.david@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Thinking about it I need to do something like give each para an ID and
> then where there is a cross reference use some sort of custom markup
to
> indicate which paragraph number should be displayed.  Then parse
> through the document to make sure that the correct numbers are
> displayed.
[M. David Peterson] Yes, this is true, using and ID to reference instead
of the actual paragraph number is a much better way of ensuring your
cross-reference is always pointing to the correct paragraph but your
still left with the problem of the link looking like "2(ii)" when it
should now read "2(iii)" so you're still in a situation of having to
update the references with the updated paragraph numbering sequence.  So
you've only solved half your problem with using separate ID tags.

It really sounds to me like you need to rely on an advanced text editor
like Word or WordPerfect to help keep both your cross references and
your index/outline in synch but I don't know if this is an option for
you or not.  Im not saying that this is impossible for you to achieve
using XSLT but I wonder if the amount of work that would have to go into
a solution like this would be worth it.  I would love to help you with
this but this is the kind of job I would be brought in as a consultant
to solve.  I would really have to sit down and think this one through
and I just don't think I have enough extra time to do that.  Let me stew
on this one a bit and see if I am not just over exaggerating the level
of difficulty on this one.  In the mean time lets see if, now that we've
got the actual problem laid out before us, some of the other guys might
not have a solution in mind or somewhere to point you to help you get
this solved.

Ill keep an eye on the activity and if nothing seems to be working I
will try and spend a bit more time on this a little later this
afternoon.
> 
> > I will mention that if this is what
> > you are looking for then yes, XSLT can do this... but you're in for
a
> > good day if not more of coding to make it work right.
> 
> I don't mind that - it is now the number 1 priority of the project to
> get this working!
[M. David Peterson] Is XSLT your only possible solution or will writing
some VBA for Word (or the equivalent for your editor of choice) to
customize the interface and add specific functionality work for this
situation?

Best regards,

<M:D/>

> --
> Cheers,
> 
> Julian Voelcker
> United Kingdom