From d6a984993b21e4c202b0528307772469984afa92 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tommaso Petrolito <tpetrolito@deloitte.it>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2025 12:21:49 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix external references

---
 src/docx/opc/oxml.py | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/docx/opc/oxml.py b/src/docx/opc/oxml.py
index 7d3c489d6..ba28dcf84 100644
--- a/src/docx/opc/oxml.py
+++ b/src/docx/opc/oxml.py
@@ -175,6 +175,8 @@ def target_mode(self):
 
         Defaults to ``Internal``.
         """
+        if self.target_ref and self.target_ref.startswith("#"):
+            return RTM.EXTERNAL
         return self.get("TargetMode", RTM.INTERNAL)