IdeaSift

Writers struggle to keep figure and table references in sync

Authors need captions to number automatically and references such as “Fig. 3” in the text to stay linked when figures or tables move. Pandoc users said automatic numbering was not connected to the text that refers to it, and a more recent work-document complaint describes numbering and cross-referencing as cumbersome. Most of the signals come from one old feature-request thread, so demand beyond that thread is not yet established.

For academic and technical writers preparing long documents. Mentioned from Apr 2013 to Dec 2024 on Bluesky and GitHub.

4 different people described this problem in 2 separate discussions.

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0 mentions in the last 12 weeks
Indie fit
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Pain
6.0/10
Frequency
5.8/10
Willingness to pay
0.0/10
Momentum
5.0/10
Who pays
Professionals
Competition
High
Build difficulty
Medium

What people said

Quoted word for word. Follow a link to read the whole discussion.

  1. Adding numbered figures and cross references like "Fig. 3" or adding numbered equations is still such a pain. I have to use it for work but I hate it
  2. In academic writing it is quite often necessary, and while automatic numbering of figures and tables is nice, it really should be linked to what is in the text
Build brief

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