🚀 go-pugleaf

Gay,

Can you show us what your folder structures look like and how this
common chapter relates to the Preface chapter in the books?

If you check how a cross-ref is defined and used in MIF, you'll see
that it consists of two parts.

The first part is the target Marker in the source file, i.e.

 <Marker
   <Unique ID> ID, persistent across sessions, assigned when
FrameMaker generates a MIF file
  <MType 9> Marker type number, where 9 is for a cross-ref & is used
only for backwards compatibility
  <MTypeName `Cross-Ref'> Marker name, as it appears in the Marker
Type popup menu of the Marker dialog box
  <MText string> Marker text string
  <MCurrPage integer> Current page of marker assigned when FrameMaker
generates a file; ignored when FrameMaker reads or imports a MIF file
 > End of Marker statement

 The second part is the actual cross-ref itself, that makes the call
to the above marker, i.e. 

 <XRef
   <Unique ID> ID, persistent across sessions, assigned when
FrameMaker generates a MIF file
   <XRefName tagstring> Name of cross-reference format
   <XRefLastUpdate seconds microseconds> Specifies the time when the
cross-reference was last updated
   <XRefLocked boolean> Yes means the cross-reference is part of a
text inset that obtains its formatting information from the source
document
   <XRefSrcText string> Text to search for
   <XRefSrcIsElem boolean> Yes means the source of the cross-reference
is an element from a structured document
   <XRefSrcFile pathname> Device-independent pathname of file in which
to search for source text
 > End of XRef statement

FM uses, not just the source filename, but the source text to search
for creating the match to the marker in the target file/location from
where you want the cross-ref inserted. If you're trying to make this
cross-ref "variable" to each <whatever>, then it will only work if the
source text is also the same everywhere.

To get the source text the same, you need to explicitly enter the
cross-reference target marker text yourself and make each entry
identical for each <whatever> that you're targeting. This means that
you insert the cross-ref marker in the Preface file, instead of
letting FM build it using the paragraph contents. 

When using the GUI for this case, you should then be using the
"Cross-Reference Markers" as the "Source Type", rather than the
"Paragraphs" option. 

You could also do this in MIF by *explicitly* setting the XRefSrcText
and XRefSrcFile parameters using your own terms in the common file,
and then applying these *same* terms in the Preface file. However,
maintenance would be a real chore (and possibly quite error-prone)
without some sort of automation.