Wombat
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Open the editor
Numbers that count themselves.
Watch the Outline on the left and the document on the right. A section, with its text and its figure, is dragged above another one. Nothing else is touched.
The film plays again by itself. It was recorded in the editor, as it is.
Before
Three sections: 1 Where they live, 2 How they dig, 3 What they eat, the last with a figure. The first paragraph says “as Section 2 explains”, and points to How they dig.
The drag
In the Outline, What they eat is taken and dropped above How they dig. A line shows where it will land. Its paragraph and its figure go with it: a section is everything under its heading.
After
The sections read 1, 2, 3 again, in their new order, in the Outline and in the text. The paragraph now says “as Section 3 explains”: it still points to How they dig, which is Section 3 now.
Why it works
In Wombat, a heading has no number typed into it. It is a section, and its number is counted from its place: move it and it is counted again. A reference does not hold a number either, but the section it points to, so it says whatever that section is called today.
The same goes for figures, tables, formulas, footnotes and the table of contents. You never type a number, and you never fix one.
Nothing to install, no account, and your document stays on your computer. Or download the app, free as well.