How to change cleveref references to 'verbal' varioref style?

Question

I would like to use cleveref's automatic ref target type recognition but with the more verbal page reference of varioref. This is my MWE:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{varioref}       
%\usepackage{cleveref}     % note cleveref package changes type of ref..
                           % and style of references to last/next page
\begin{document}

        % This figure appears on page 1.
        \begin{figure}[!htb]
          \centering
          \rule{24pt}{24pt}
          \caption{The famous black square}
          \label{OneBlackSquare}
        \end{figure}

        % This sentence appears on page 2.
        \clearpage
        The non-color black is shown in \vref{OneBlackSquare}.

\end{document}

It produces a nice to read verbal reference when using the varioref package:

varioref verbal description

The only thing missing is the automatic target type. Enabling the cleveref package adds this very good feature but also overrides all verbal behavior of varioref. Regardless of the space to the target all references are located by page number instead of "on next page".

cleveref automatic type recognition

But how can I combine them to get:

the automatic target type like figure or equation of cleveref and
the verbal description of the target's position if it is on the last/next page to improve the reader's flow?

Edit after a week: I received no solution proposal and both documentation do not solve my problem. Hence I stick with varioref and write the type of floating object hard coded in the text.

Very strange. It works if the figure comes on the next page: "The non-color black is shown in fig. 2 on the next page." — Juri Robl, Jul 06 '14 at 16:39
I know from reading the documentation of cleveref, that it overwrites varioref positioning expressions. Is there a way to change cleveref expressions back again? — VisorZ, Jul 07 '14 at 14:05

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

A nice bug! There is a space character missing in the cleveref package. Line 2337 currently reads:

        \advance\@tempcnta-2%

but should read:

        \advance\@tempcnta-2 %

yes, it is that space character (see What are the differences between TeX counts and LaTeX counters?).

I have notified Toby Cubitt, but for now you can either fix your package source locally, or overwrite the change in your preamble as follows:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{varioref}    
\usepackage{cleveref}

\makeatletter
\def\cref@old@@vpageref#1[#2]#3{%
    \leavevmode%\unskip  <<<
    \global\advance\c@vrcnt\@ne%
    \vref@pagenum\@tempa{\the\c@vrcnt @vr}%
    \vref@pagenum\@tempb{\the\c@vrcnt @xvr}%
    %\vref@label{\the\c@vrcnt @xvr}%  <<<
    \ifx\@tempa\@tempb\else%
      \vref@err{\noexpand\vref or \noexpand\vpageref at page boundary
                \@tempb-\@tempa\space (may loop)%
                }%
    \fi%
    \vrefpagenum\thevpagerefnum{#3}%
    \vref@space%
    \ifx\@tempa\thevpagerefnum%
      \def\@tempc{#1}%
      \ifx\@tempc\@empty%
         \unskip%
      \else%
         #1%
      \fi%
    \else%
      #2%
      \is@pos@number\thevpagerefnum%
         {%
          \is@pos@number\@tempa%
           {\@tempcnta\@tempa%
            \advance\@tempcnta\@ne%
           }%
           {\@tempcnta\maxdimen}%
          \ifnum \thevpagerefnum =\@tempcnta%
           \ifodd\@tempcnta%
             \if@twoside%
               \reftextfaceafter%
             \else%
               \reftextafter%
             \fi%
           \else%
             \reftextafter%
           \fi%
          \else%
            \advance\@tempcnta-2 %  <--- there was a space missing here!
            \ifnum \thevpagerefnum =\@tempcnta%
              \ifodd\@tempcnta%
                \reftextbefore%
              \else%
                \if@twoside%
                  \reftextfacebefore%
                \else%
                  \reftextbefore%
                \fi%
              \fi%
            \else%
              \reftextfaraway{#3}%
            \fi%
          \fi%
         }%
         {\reftextfaraway{#3}}%
    \fi%
    \vref@label{\the\c@vrcnt @xvr}%  <<<
    \vref@label{\the\c@vrcnt @vr}%
  }%
\makeatother

\begin{document}

        % This figure appears on page 1.
        \begin{figure}[!htb]
          \centering
          \rule{24pt}{24pt}
          \caption{The famous black square}
          \label{OneBlackSquare}
        \end{figure}

        % This sentence appears on page 2.
        \clearpage
        The non-color black is shown in \vref{OneBlackSquare}.

\end{document}

This gives the expected:

The non-color black is shown in Fig. 1 on the preceding page.

Your solution works. To implement the bug fix I changed line 2337 in /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cleveref/cleveref.sty. My LaTeX distribution is TexLive 2014 on Mac OSX. That alone resulted in the correct referencing. Additionally I changed line 5932 in /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf-dist/source/latex/cleveref/cleveref.dtx, to keep the documentation in sync. — VisorZ, Apr 29 '15 at 06:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '21 at 17:51

0

Something like:

\newcommand{\refthing}[1]{\cref{#1}, \vpagerefnearby{#1}{\vpageref{#1}}{\cpageref{#1}}}

should do it.

answered Feb 06 '21 at 17:51

Michael Saunders

1

That single line works for me. It might be possible to solve the problem with more lines of code, in order to commemorate the passage of time. Maybe someone could write a lengthier chunk of code that does the same thing. This was the best I could come up with. It uses the varioref verbal style if the reference is nearby and the cleveref numerical style otherwise. I see no useful way to lengthen it. I suppose, if readers weren't paying attention to the date codes on the posts, I could include a brief essay reflecting on how much the world has changed in six years, but I haven't the time. – Michael Saunders Feb 08 '21 at 02:55

How to change cleveref references to 'verbal' varioref style?

2 Answers2