Create a list of figures, equations and other items I run a website that is like an electronic book http://www.pveducation.org Presently there are equations, images, mini-calculators that are included in the body of each page. How do I get Drupal to automatically create a list of links to,for example, the equations?  I also thought of making the equations a Content Type and use Views to make a page of all the equations but then I can't figure out how to use the new type in the body of each page. Should I use entities instead?
This is a typical use case for views. 

If I understand your requirements correctly, you need to do the following:


create a block in views (see http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/drupal-7/views-module-tutorial/create-block-display)
assign that block to the region you want it to appear in your default theme (Structure -> Blocks), see https://drupal.org/documentation/modules/block


You can also restrict the pages on which the block should appear.