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Cross reference, just an idea...

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:35 pm
by Normand
When we write by hand and we want to cross reference to something. We look in our text (or document), note in our head what we want to refer to (title, paragraph, equation number, etc) and write it at the proper place, with the proper style, of course.

Would it be a good idea to implement something like "Copy for cross reference" (CFC) and "Paste for cross reference... with this or that style". (PFC) Then we could CFC a paragraph number, an equation number or anything, and PFC it at the desired place. The default style of the pasted element could be "surrounding style". And a way to define other style for pasted elements could be implemented.

One could argue that it is pleasant to have a window that shows all the automated elements that coud be referenced to "à la FrameMaker". But it already exist in Mellel; the left pane (in french it is named "Plan"). Cliking one element select it. A CFC and a PFC would do the job.

Well it is just an idea. Maybe there exist a much better way than this to do cross reference! If it appears that this of o part of this is a good idea, I would be willing to present more completely what I have in mind.

Note. I am now a registered user of Mellel. A full family pack! I planned to wait for the implementation of cross reference but my daughters wanted to use it now!!!!

Normand Beaudoin
Département de physique et astronomie.
Université de Moncton

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 11:23 pm
by nicka
Nice idea. Something similar could apply to drag and drop.

In addition to what we can do now with drag and drop in the outline pane, I'd like to be able to:
1) drag and drop an auto-title element within the main window, moving it relative to all other text (currently dragging an auto-title element does nothing or copies its text, depending which bit you try to get hold of);
2) option-drag and drop an auto-title element within the main window, copying it (same result as you get now with copy and paste);
3) shift-drag (or some other modifier) an auto-title element or other cross-referable element within the main window, copying it as a cross-reference to the original;
4) drag an auto-title element from the outline pane into the main window, creating a cross-reference to the original.

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:45 pm
by Normand
Hi!
Nicka, you have developped my idea.
I must say that my idea is very incomplete. For example, cross-referencing to a particular element (autonumber or anything else) should allow to indicate the page, section... etc...) And thre must be many other requirements that I even did not think about...

Normand