reftex: Referencing Labels
3.2 Referencing Labels
======================
RefTeX scans the document in order to find all labels. To make
referencing labels easier, it assigns to each label a category, the
_label type_ (for example section, table, figure, equation, etc.). In
order to determine the label type, RefTeX parses around each label to
see in what kind of environments it is located. You can speed up the
parsing by using type-specific prefixes for labels and configuring the
variable ‘reftex-trust-label-prefix’.
Referencing Labels is really at the heart of RefTeX. Press ‘C-c )’
in order to reference a label (‘reftex-reference’). This will start a
selection process and finally insert the complete ‘\ref{label}’ into the
buffer.
First, you can select which reference macro you want to use, e.g.,
‘\ref’ or ‘\pageref’. Later in the process you have another chance to
make this selection and you can therefore disable this step by
customizing ‘reftex-ref-macro-prompt’ if you find it too intrusive.
Reference Styles.
Then, RefTeX will determine the label category which is required.
Often that can be figured out from context. For example, if you write
‘As shown in eq.’ and then press ‘C-c )’, RefTeX knows that an equation
label is going to be referenced. If it cannot figure out what label
category is needed, it will query for one.
You will then be presented with a label selection menu. This is a
special buffer which contains an outline of the document along with all
labels of the given label category. In addition, next to the label
there will be one line of context of the label definition, which is some
text in the buffer near the label definition. Usually this is
sufficient to identify the label. If you are unsure about a certain
label, pressing <SPC> will show the label definition point in another
window.
In order to reference a label, move the cursor to the correct label
and press <RET>. You can also reference several labels with a single
call to ‘reftex-reference’ by marking entries with the ‘m’ key (see
below).
Here is a list of special commands in the selection buffer. A
summary of this information is always available from the selection
process by pressing ‘?’.
General
.......
‘?’
Show a summary of available commands.
‘0-9,-’
Prefix argument.
Moving around
.............
‘n’
Go to next label.
‘p’
Go to previous label.
‘b’
Jump back to the position where you last left the selection buffer.
Normally this should get you back to the last referenced label.
‘C-c C-n’
Goto next section heading.
‘C-c C-p’
Goto previous section heading.
‘N z’
Jump to section N, using the prefix arg. For example ‘3 z’ jumps
to section 3.
Displaying Context
..................
‘<SPC>’
Show the surroundings of the definition of the current label in
another window. See also the ‘f’ key.
‘f’
Toggle follow mode. When follow mode is active, the other window
will always display the full context of the current label. This is
similar to pressing <SPC> after each cursor motion. Note that only
context in files already visited is shown. RefTeX will not visit a
file just for follow mode. See, however, the variable
‘reftex-revisit-to-follow’.
‘.’
Show insertion point in another window. This is the point from
where you called ‘reftex-reference’.
Selecting a label and creating the reference
............................................
‘<RET>’
Insert a reference to the label at point into the buffer from which
the selection process was started. When entries have been marked,
<RET> references all marked labels.
‘mouse-2’
Clicking with mouse button 2 on a label will accept it like <RET>
would. See also variable ‘reftex-highlight-selection’,
Options - Misc.
‘m - + ,’
Mark the current entry. When several entries have been marked,
pressing ‘RET’ will accept all of them and place them into several
‘\ref’ macros. The special markers ‘,-+’ also store a separator to
be inserted before the corresponding reference. So marking six
entries with the keys ‘m , , - , +’ will give a reference list like
this (see the variable ‘reftex-multiref-punctuation’)
In eqs. (1), (2), (3)--(4), (5) and (6)
‘u’
Unmark a marked entry.
‘a’
Accept the marked entries and put all labels as a comma-separated
list into one _single_ ‘\ref’ macro. Some packages like
‘saferef.sty’ support multiple references in this way.
‘l’
Use the last referenced label(s) again. This is equivalent to
moving to that label and pressing <RET>.
‘<TAB>’
Enter a label with completion. This may also be a label which does
not yet exist in the document.
‘v’
Cycle forward through active reference macros. The selected macro
is displayed by the ‘S<...>’ indicator in the mode line of the
selection buffer. This mechanism comes in handy if you are using
LaTeX packages like ‘varioref’ or ‘fancyref’ and want to use the
special referencing macros they provide (e.g., ‘\vref’ or ‘\fref’)
instead of ‘\ref’.
‘V’
Cycle backward through active reference macros.
Exiting
.......
‘q’
Exit the selection process without inserting any reference into the
buffer.
Controlling what gets displayed
...............................
The defaults for the following flags can be configured with the
variable ‘reftex-label-menu-flags’ (Options - Referencing
Labels).
‘c’
Toggle the display of the one-line label definition context in the
selection buffer.
‘F’
Toggle the display of the file borders of a multifile document in
the selection buffer.
‘t’
Toggle the display of the table of contents in the selection
buffer. With prefix ARG, change the maximum level of toc entries
displayed to ARG. Chapters are level 1, sections are level 2.
‘#’
Toggle the display of a label counter in the selection buffer.
‘%’
Toggle the display of labels hidden in comments in the selection
buffers. Sometimes, you may have commented out parts of your
document. If these parts contain label definitions, RefTeX can
still display and reference these labels.
Updating the buffer
...................
‘g’
Update the menu. This will rebuilt the menu from the internal
label list, but not reparse the document (see ‘r’).
‘r’
Reparse the document to update the information on all labels and
rebuild the menu. If the variable ‘reftex-enable-partial-scans’ is
non-‘nil’ and your document is a multifile document, this will
reparse only a part of the document (the file in which the label at
point was defined).
‘C-u r’
Reparse the _entire_ document.
‘s’
Switch the label category. After prompting for another label
category, a menu for that category will be shown.
‘x’
Reference a label from an external document. With the LaTeX
package ‘xr’ it is possible to reference labels defined in another
document. This key will switch to the label menu of an external
document and let you select a label from there (xr LaTeX xr
Package.).
In order to define additional commands for the selection process, the
keymap ‘reftex-select-label-map’ may be used.
Info Catalog
reftex: Creating Labels
reftex: Labels and References
reftex: Builtin Label Environments