> btw. the next problems are already arising, as I also need to figure out > references to tables, to images, glossary, ...
You do this with <xref>s. An example is easiest; Name the element you want to reference first, i.e. <figure id="my_figure"> ... </figure> then anywhere you want to refer to it, use <xref linkend="my_figure" />, which gets converted to "Figure x", where x is the figure number. With other elements, the appropriate noun is inserted in place of "Figure". (this is correct, isn't it guys?) At least, this is how I do it with XML. For all I know it differs when using SGML. Incidentally, you probably want to use element id's that describe what they label, i.e. <figure id="fig-image_description">, <section id="section-section_about_topic_x">. It's not compulsory in the slightest, but I'd argue that it makes the xref's more legible when you're writing the document. -- roryh
