Internal references let you create clickable links to headings, images, charts, and tables within your document. References are automatically resolved with correct numbering at render time.
Defining anchors
Heading anchors
Add {#anchor-id} at the end of a heading:
Image anchors
Add an anchor attribute to an image:
Chart anchors
Add an anchor attribute to a chart directive:
Table anchors
Add an anchor attribute to a table directive:
Anchor ID rules
- Must start with a letter (a–z, A–Z)
- Can contain letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens
- Must be unique within the document
- Examples:
intro, fig-1, section_2, data-analysis
Referencing anchors
There are three display modes for internal references:
Auto mode
Use empty brackets [] to automatically show the target’s numbered prefix and title:
Renders as: See Section 1 Introduction for more details.
Template mode
Include {num} in the link text — it gets replaced with the target’s number:
Renders as:
- As shown in Figure 1, the architecture…
- Refer to Table 2 for the full dataset.
- See Section 2 for methodology.
Custom mode
Provide any text without {num} — it’s displayed as-is:
Renders as:
- For sales data, refer to the chart below.
- As discussed earlier, the results are clear.
Summary
Validation
Autype validates references at render time:
- Duplicate anchors — two elements with the same anchor ID will cause a validation error
- Broken references — references to non-existent anchors will cause a validation error
Use descriptive anchor IDs like fig-architecture or sec-methodology to make your document source readable and avoid accidental duplicates.
