Re: insert automatically a reference to a section header and a link

[Stefan Nobis]

Uwe Brauer <oub@mat.ucm.es> writes:

> I am not following you. You insert a header as in 

> * Intro

> Now you want to refer to it with a link

> As we have seen in section ...

> So what precisely are you typing?

I type "As we have seen in section [[*Intro]]" (literally, I tend to
not use any keybindings or function to insert the link). This (the
"*Intro" inside double square brackets) is called an internal link to
headlines and they are a default feature of Org:

    https://orgmode.org/manual/Internal-Links.html#Internal-Links

BTW: I mostly export to PDF via LaTeX and usually use the combination
of cleveref with varioref. Therefore I prefer to type "As we have seen
in [[*Intro]]" (leaving out "section") and let Org generate a
"\vref{...}" reference. To achive this, I need little bit of extra
setup (and do not forget to add the necessary usepackage commands
either locally in the Org file or add it to
org-latex-default-packages-alist):

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
  (defun sn/ox-latex-filter-special-ref-vref (text backend info)
    (when (org-export-derived-backend-p backend 'latex)
      (replace-regexp-in-string "\\\\ref{" "\\\\vref{" text)))
  
  (add-to-list 'org-export-filter-link-functions 
#'sn/ox-latex-filter-special-ref-vref)
#+end_src

If you need internal links to headings more often and do not want to
type the whole heading text manually, you can use functions like this
(inspired by `worf-goto' and `counsel-outline'; if you do not use
ivy/swiper/counsel, the code should at least give the basic idea):

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(defun sn/org-insert-internal-link ()
  "Use ivy to insert a link to a heading in the current `org-mode' document."
  (interactive)
  (let ((settings (cdr (assq major-mode counsel-outline-settings))))
    (ivy-read "Heading: " (counsel-outline-candidates settings)
              :action 'sn/org-insert-internal-link-action)))

(defun sn/org-insert-internal-link-action (x)
  "Insert link for `sn/worf-insert-internal-link'"
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char (cdr x))
    (call-interactively 'org-store-link))
  (org-insert-last-stored-link 1)
  (delete-char -1))
#+end_src

-- 
Until the next mail...,
Stefan.