Native cross references in Google Docs

[Legal-Googler]

When drafting documents with numbered lists (such as contracts), we often need to create a cross reference to a numbered item, and that cross reference needs to auto-update if its number changes. For example, if we refer to Section 5 as in "the parties will not do this, subject to Section 5", but eventually we deleted Section 3, then the cross reference not only must still cross refer to the right place in the document, but the 5 needs to become a 4, as Section 5 is now Section 4. MS Word lets us do this effortlessly. There are add-ons for Google Docs that approximate this function (such as this one), but they are unknown companies/parties and we only want to accept Google's Workspace T&C's . How complicated would it be for Google Docs to have this feature? It's the only thing holding us from dropping MS 365.

[icrew]

You might want to post this to the Feature Ideas section here (https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Feature-Ideas/gh-p/workspace-ideas-group) so that it can be upvoted by others and possibly considered as a future feature enhancement.

Cheers,

Ian

[bill_pier3]

Agreed -- submit this idea as a feature request!

[egaible]

Hi Bill,
I can't really believe that I found (by accident) a reference to something that you commented on. I AGREE -- THIS SHOULD BE A FEATURE, HOW HARD WOULD IT BE? I had to spend 8 hours of my client's time re-doing x-refs that were deleted by Google Docs. I will stick to MS Word from now on as I _must_ use X-REFS not hyperlinks.

[Legal-Googler]

I don't know for you, but for me , X-refs are the only reason we use MS Word instead of Google Docs (for everything else we find Google Docs superior, especially for collaborating with multiple users working on one file). Also pretty much any precedent or template bought online uses MS-style X-refs, and we almost always use those to save time for clients. Time spent formatting is not something clients are super keen to spend on, so MS Word unfortunately wins. 

[Legal-Googler]

Done! I just posted it here: (1) Native cross references in Google Docs - Google Cloud Community

[MatejKriz]

I am receiving "Access Denied" on that URL.
https://www.googlecloudcommunity.com/gc/Feature-Ideas/Native-cross-references-in-Google-Docs/idi-p/1...

We also need this feature.

[stevelarsen]

Instead of saying subject to "Section 5", why not label these with more specific references. For example, instead of saying Article IX, you would say subject to USE AND RIGHTS IN COMMON AREAS and then when that changes to Article VIII for example you don't have those references to articles but you refer to the actual heading name which is unlikely to change.

You can also just hyperlink to each section and say 'the section linked here' instead of 'section 5'. Then when you hover over the link it will show the updated section number if it changes.

[Legal-Googler]

We can't. The problem is that in my industry (legal), templates and precedents are king, and they're almost always drafted with the "Section #" style of cross reference. It's also what our clients usually expect. We've tried what you suggest in the past and it works fine, except clients hated it and asked to revert to the "usual way". We really need this feature to work exactly like in MS Word natively in Google Docs, or else we must stick with MS Word.