Make Cross References Easier to Use in Word

Question

Is there an add-in for Word (2007+ ) that makes inserting of cross references to headings (table of content items) or figures actually usable?

I'm looking ideally for something I know from my Latex editor, when I want to reference something I'm offered with a auto complete drop down that shows me my document structure, figures and tables and I can select / filter them very quickly.

The main problems I'm having with Word cross references

• Cumbersome to find the correct section in the full structure that includes every bloody numbered list
• Always have to reselect that figures are only referenced with "Figure X" and not the whole caption
• Cross Reference window just floating around, always in the way, away when I re-open the document

Taken together, it takes forever to add a reference, maybe that's the reason why most longer Word documents I'm working on don't have them =)

Or maybe I'm just inapt in this regard, are there any tips how to to use the integrated cross reference function in a better way?

Thanks, elm

Answer 1

I was annoyed by the same thing, especially by the fixed miniature size of the "insert cross reference" dialog. Shame on the responsible designer! At least, since Office 2016, this dialog can be resized in height - there is progress at Redmond ;-) .
Anyway, cumbersome as it is, I wrote a macro to insert cross references more comfortably. It works as follows (after you have assigned a hotkey to it):

1. Position the cursor to where the crossref should be inserted
2. Press the hotkey => a temporary bookmark is inserted (grey square brackets if you have configured them to be shown)
3. Navigate to the element to which the crossref is to be inserted, e.g. a figure label or a headline. I find it especially comfortable to use the navigation pane / Headlines to quickly navigate to the destination.
4. Press the hotkey again. The cursor jumps back to the original location and inserts the crossreference there.

You may access the code and some more detailed instructions from GitHub.