\autoref should call sections within the appendix “appendix” not “section”

Question

I make use of autoref thoughout my now rather long document. I have an appendix with sections, though currently a small number, so changes could be made here.

I want references in my document to sections within the appendix to say something like appendix A.1 instead of section A.1 but still refer to sections not in the appendix by section. I had an idea along the lines of creating some alias to section which had their own autorefname and using these instead of section. I tried and failed to use aliascnt for this. I don't know if it was because I was doing it wrongly or because it can't do what I wanted.

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

I assume you're using a class that includes the \chapter command (e.g. book or report). In that case, within the appendix \autoref will refer to chapters as "Appendix", but to sections still as "section" (contrary to the article class, where sections would constitute an "Appendix"). Solution: (EDIT: My first "solution" was very ill-advised) Load cleveref after hyperref and use \cref instead of \autoref. (Yes, the links won't be as pretty as before.)

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{cleveref}% Load AFTER hyperref!

% \crefname{subappendix}{fairy tale}{fairy tales}

\begin{document}

\chapter{bla}\label{bla}

\section{blubb}\label{blubb}

As shown in \cref{foo} and especially in \cref{bar} \dots

\appendix

\chapter{foo}\label{foo}

\section{bar}\label{bar}

As shown in \cref{bla} and especially in \cref{blubb} \dots

\end{document}

Answer 2

The simplest workaround is to define a new command:

\newcommand{\aref}[1]{\hyperref[#1]{Appendix~\ref{#1}}}

and use it for appendix sections:

\aref{sec:appendix_section}