Org-ref provides a ref link for exactly this purpose. It looks like ref:an-equation and if you click on it it jumps to the label. The link is red if the label doesn't exist and maroonish if it does. It exports in latex as \ref{an-equation}. It sounds like just what you need.

You can get org-ref on melpa.

On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 9:15 AM Fraga, Eric <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
Hello all,

it's that time of year where I have to think about revamping my lecture
slides (having just finished one year, the next one starts...).  I write
these in org and export to beamer obviously!

I teach a technical subject.  I therefore have quite a few equations in
my slides and I use LaTeX for these.  I would like to be able to use org
fully with respect to links and targets.  If I define a label in LaTeX
directly, \label{an-equation} for instance, I get no benefit from using
an org link to it, e.g. [[an-equation]] (by default, this leads to the
org exporter complaining about a missing target and if I tell org not to
complain I subsequently miss real errors).  So I use inline LaTeX to
provide the link, as in \ref{an-equation}.  But then I lose the ability
to jump to the target within org, something which is quite useful given
that I have many slides for the full module I teach.

The only satisfactory solution I have found is to do something along
these lines:

#+begin_src org
  The equation is:
  ,#+begin_equation
  <<an-equation>>
  y = x + 3
  ,#+end_equation

  (later) In equation [[an-equation]], we see nothing much.
#+end_src

This works in that I can jump to the label by clicking on the link but I
lose the ability to edit the equation in LaTeX mode.

Any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks,
eric

--
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 27.0.50, Org release_9.2.4-379-g1b74ae
--
John

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