How to include name in cross references?

[drscotthawley]

If I provide a reference to a section, I want the name of that section to appear in the cross reference, e.g. with code like

# Further Study {#sec-further}

....
See the @sec-further section for more information

I want it it so say, "See the Further Study section for more information", not "See the Section 9 section for more information" How do we do that? I'm reading the documentation on Cross-References but can't find any name-based behavior described.

I want it to grab whatever the section name is, so that even if I change the section name (e.g. to "Further Studies"), I won't have to remember to go back and re-name it everywhere in the text where it's referenced.

[sicabi]

Hello, I am also very interested in this topic. I haven't found a native Quarto solution, but only a Pandoc-lua filter solution written by @shafayetShafee, available in StackOverflow.

[shafayetShafee]

FYI, I have converted that answer to an extension nameref. But this extension has an important limitation.

[sicabi]

Works quite well, thank you.

[cderv]

FWIW this is tracked in

• General support for references to the name of a Section/Chapter/etc. rather than its number. #1196
• Feature request: Ability to show the title of the cross-referenced chapter/section instead of just its number #4532

[mcanouil]

@slowkow Please when stating something "does not work", add a small and reproducible example or at least context.

[slowkow]

@mcanouil

quarto 1.7.31

When I use number-sections: true I get Section 1.

When I use number-sections: false I still get Section 1. I would have expected to get Methods instead of Section 1.

_quarto.yml

project:
  output-dir: output/

format:
  html:
    number-sections: false

paper.qmd

---
title: My title
date: 2025-05-19
license: "CC BY"
---

{{< include includes/results.qmd >}}

{{< include includes/methods.qmd >}}

includes/results.qmd

# Results

## First section of results

See the methods here (@sec-methods).

includes/methods.qmd

# Methods {#sec-methods}

## First section of methods

Here are my methods.

[mcanouil]

Your example is really not a simple one.

---
format:
  html:
    number-sections: false
---

# Methods {#sec-methods}

See the methods here (@sec-methods).

@slowkow Do note that the reply marked as the answer contained two issues that track this request.
The two issues are still opened.
Finally, if you follow the links, you can see that #9778 (reply in thread) comments is only valid for Books projects.

[slowkow]

@mcanouil I tried your example, and it also produces Section 1 instead of Methods.

[mcanouil]

Please fully read the replies.