If an xref element does not contain link text, the target is examined and the link text is pulled. For example, a reference to a topic pulls the title of the topic; a reference to a list item pulls the number of the item. If the xref element references a topic that has a short description, and the xref element does not already contain a child desc element, a desc element is created that contains the text from the topic short description.

The process is similar for link elements. If the link element does not have a child linktext element, one is created with the appropriate link text. Similarly, if the link element does not have a child desc element, and the short description of the target can be determined, a desc element is created that contains the text from the topic short description.