You can organize all these references in your document by creating cross-references. Cross-references help your reader navigate through the document by adding links, similar to the links found in a table of contents. The reader can then hold the Ctrl key and click the reference to go to that location.

 

Here’s an example: 

 

 

So rather than trying to find Figure 1 on their own, they can just click on the cross-reference.

 

First, we need to learn how to insert a cross-reference. It’s a lot like inserting a caption; just click to place your cursor where you want the reference to be (or select the text that will be replaced with the reference, and then click the Insert menu, choose Index, and click Cross-Reference. You will then see this dialog:

 

 

The first drop-down menu, labeled Reference lets you choose what type of reference this is: to a numbered item, heading, bookmark, footnote, endnote, figure. equation, or table. With each choice, the relative items in your document will be displayed in the large white pane at the bottom of the dialog box.

 

You can also use the Insert reference to drop-down menu to choose what element of the reference type will be displayed in the reference. These choices are different for each reference type. For example, for Figure you have choices like Entire caption and Caption Text Only, whereas for Heading you have choices like Heading Text and Page Number. You can customize these options for every cross-reference you insert.

 

There are also three checkboxes that allow you to enable or disable the linking feature, separate numbers with a certain character, and to include information about where the linked item is.

 

Once you’re done editing these options, click OK and the reference will be inserted in the text. When you click the reference, a gray box will appear around it to show you that it is an active field. This box is only a visual aid and will not be printed.

 

 

 

Note that if you change the original reference (for example, the caption) you must update the reference as well. Doing this is easy: just right-click the cross-reference and click Update Field to update the reference as well: