The location has to be written to the external file as a number (formatted using standard counter commands such as \arabic, \roman or \alph) otherwise makeindex will reject the entry. Even if you use xindy, you'd have to define a location style and list the mappings between all the section numbers and their titles. The following example writes the section number to the external file as normal but defines a set of mappings from section number to section title and redefines \glsnumberformat to fetch the corresponding title given the section number. However, even this isn't straightforward as the argument to \glsnumberformat may contain a list separated by \delimN or \delimR (Edit: I've changed the example to have multiple glossaries):
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[counter=section]{glossaries}
\newglossary{glossary2}{gls2}{glo2}{Glossary 2}[page]
\newglossary{glossary3}{gls3}{glo3}{Glossary 3}[section]
\makeglossaries
\makeatletter
\newcommand\@fourthoffive[5]{#4}
% adapt toc section command to get number -> title map
\let\org@l@section\l@section
\renewcommand{\l@section}[2]{%
\org@l@section{#1}{#2}%
\expandafter\@fetchsecnum\@fourthoffive#1\end@fetchsecnum
}
\def\@fetchsecnum#1#2#3\end@fetchsecnum{%
\ifdefequal\numberline{#1}%
{%
% numbered section, save title
\csgdef{sec@#2}{#3}%
}%
{%
% unnumbered section, do nothing
}%
}
% also need to take into account any glossary entries at the start
% of the chapter before the first section
\let\org@l@chapter\l@chapter
\renewcommand{\l@chapter}[2]{%
\org@l@chapter{#1}{#2}%
\expandafter\@fetchchapnum\@fourthoffive#1\end@fetchchapnum
}
\def\@fetchchapnum#1#2#3\end@fetchchapnum{%
\ifdefequal\numberline{#1}%
{%
% numbered chapter, save title
\csgdef{sec@#2.0}{#3}%
}%
{%
% unnumbered chapter, do nothing
}%
}
\makeatother
\newcommand*{\getsectitle}[1]{%
\ifcsdef{sec@#1}
{%
\hyperlink{section.#1}{\csuse{sec@#1}}%
}%
{%
\hyperlink{section.#1}{#1}% undefined so just display section number
}%
}
\DeclareListParser*{\glsnumlistN}{\delimN}
\newcommand{\glsnumlistNhandler}[1]{%
\locNsep
\def\locRsep{}%
\glsnumlistR{\glsnumlistRhandler}{#1}%
\let\locNsep\delimN
}
\DeclareListParser*{\glsnumlistR}{\delimR}
\newcommand{\glsnumlistRhandler}[1]{%
\locRsep\getsectitle{#1}\let\locRsep\delimR
}
\newcommand*{\glstitlelocformat}[1]{%
\def\locNsep{}%
\glsnumlistN{\glsnumlistNhandler}{#1}%
}
\newglossaryentry{sample}{name=sample,description={an example}}
\newglossaryentry{sample2}{type=glossary2,
name=sample2,description={a second example}}
\newglossaryentry{sample3}{type=glossary3,
name=sample3,description={a third example}}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{Sample Chapter}
\gls{sample}. \gls{sample2}.
\section{First section}
\gls{sample}.
\section{Second section}
\gls{sample}. \gls{sample2}.
\section{Third section}
\section{Fourth section}
\gls{sample}. \gls{sample3}.
\section{Fifth section}
\gls{sample}.
\lipsum
\gls{sample2}.
\let\glsnumberformat\glstitlelocformat
\printglossary
\renewcommand{\glsnumberformat}[1]{\glshypernumber{#1}}
\printglossary[type=glossary2]
\let\glsnumberformat\glstitlelocformat
\printglossary[type=glossary3]
\end{document}
Result:
Caveat:
You need to consider the possibility that the reader may want to print out the document and read the hardcopy, in which case this design makes it difficult to look up the reference, as you're forcing the reader to search through the table of contents to find the appropriate page number. At least with a section number the reader can make an intuitive guess as to whereabouts roughly the section is within the document.
Since I consider this poor document design style, I'm reluctant to add it as a feature, but the above should work if you really want to do it.
\usepackage[counter=section]{glossaries}– Megachip Nov 22 '12 at 13:41