Allow Figures, Tables, and other elements to be numbered automatically

[SteelWagstaff]

Feature Scope

• [ ] Accessibility and inclusivity
• [x] User interface (content creation)
• [ ] User interface (network home page & catalog)
• [x] User interface (reading)
• [x] Import/export formats
• [x] Authoring tools
• [ ] Book themes
• [ ] Integration with third-party services

Feature Description

A number of our authors would like for their figures and tables to be able to be numbered automatically, and to have the option to include references to chapter/section numbers in the figure/table number (e.g. Fig 1.3 for the third figure in the first chapter, etc.) I believe that automatic numbering for figures/tables/and other HTML elements could be provisioned by CSS counters: https://tympanus.net/codrops/2013/05/02/automatic-figure-numbering-with-css-counters/ 6.

Feature Use Case

I think this might be especially valuable for textbooks and other kinds of standardized publications, where having numbered ‘figures’ or ‘tables’ might be desirable.

Other Notes

Some previous conversations about automatic numbering has taken place in the Pressbooks Discourse forum at https://discourse.pressbooks.org/t/auto-numbering-for-images-and-headings/171/6 + https://discourse.pressbooks.org/t/automatic-line-numbering/369 + https://discourse.pressbooks.org/t/theme-support-for-automatic-numbering-of-tables-figures/238

[pb-amy]

Internal: https://pressbooks.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/1837

If this ticket is ever worked on, please follow up with the ticket above.

[DoctorPCOD]

Is this something that is in progress or going to be implemented? I could realllllly use this feature, as I'm currently writing a textbook!

[kybrarian]

Automatic numbering and cross references for tables, figures, and subsections is really needed. I hope this can be addressed soon

[alliaservice]

Faculty at my institution would really appreciate this feature!