OpenOffice.org 2.4 introduces support for exporting named designations in PDF documents which you can then link from other places.

Named designations are specific places in a document that may be referenced from the same or from another document. For example, you may want to reference slide 13 in an Impress document, chapter 5 in a Writer document, or the budget sheet of a Calc document. With this feature, you can design links to put on web pages and in PDF documents to refer to any of these places:

• Writer bookmarks
• Impress slide names
• Draw slide names
• Calc sheet names

How to use in Writer

Here is how to create a bookmark from Writer and export it to PDF:

1. Open a Writer document.
2. Position the cursor where you want the bookmark
3. Click Insert > Bookmark.
4. Type the name of the bookmark using only the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and the hyphen symbol (-). This name will be the name of the named designation.
   
5. Click the OK button.
6. Click File > Export as PDF.
7. Click the Links tab.
8. Check the box Export bookmarks as named designations.
   
9. Click the Export button.

Assuming your document is book.pdf and your bookmark is chapter, then you can reference your bookmark from external sources as book.pdf#chapter1 from OpenOffice.org documents, PDF documents, and web pages.

The part starting with the number sign like #chapter1 is called a fragment identifier.

Related articles

• Interview with Giuseppe Castagno, the OpenOffice.org developer who implemented this feature
• OpenOffice.org 2.4 features and enhancements