DocumentClass-Independent Table of Contents (eToC)

etocminitoctocloft

I want to create a local table of contents, and am currently using etoc. I noticed that the formatting is largely dependent of the documentclass.
Below is a screenshot for the article document class result of \localtableofcontents.

and the \localtableofcontents for the report documentclass

My LaTeX needs to be written in the article document class but I would really to make the formatting of the local toc to match the report document class. More specifically the smaller gaps between lines and the …….. before page numbers.

I've scanned through the documentation for etoc and it's filled with complex macros that I'm having difficulty manipulating to get the desired result.

Here's a MWE

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{etoc}

\title{Report Doc Class}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

    \localtableofcontents

     \section{first section (of report doc class)}

     \section{second section}

     \section{third section}
\end{document}

I'm also curious if there's any strong preferences for etoc vs tocloft vs minitoc etc. for local table of contents. Thank you 🙂

Best Answer

Use the tocloft package. I have taken your MWE, for which thanks, changed it to the article class and added tocloft code to tweak the local ToC to what you say you want.

EDIT I have changed the MWE to unbold the ToC entries as asked for in a commment by the OP. I have not changed the graphic to match which shows the original bold entries.

% etocprob2.tex  SE 622703

\documentclass{article} %\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{tocloft}  % must be before etoc package
\renewcommand{\cftsecdotsep}{\cftdotsep} % add dots to section entries
\setlength{\cftbeforesecskip}{0pt} % no extra vertical space between section entries
\renewcommand{\cftsecfont}{} % normal (non-bold) font for section entries
\renewcommand{\cftsecpagefont}{} % normal font for section pages

\usepackage{etoc}

%\title{Report Doc Class}
\title{Article Doc Class}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

%\tableofcontents

   \localtableofcontents

     \section{first section (of article doc class)}

     \section{second section}

     \section{third section}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to generate table of contents for each section that includes all its subsections

Since you want ToCs in sections, you would have to use \dosecttoc, and \secttoc, instead of \doparttoc and \parttoc.

However, the minitoc documentation says that section ToCs are not available for the report and book classes. minitoc will only give ToCs for the highest sectioning commands in the hierarchy of the class. So I guess, no luck here with this package.

Problem with localtableofcontents from package etoc

You can define a style for the subsection (in this case) like

%% ***************************************** added <<<<
\usepackage{showframe} % only to show margins <<<<<<<<<

\newlength{\npageW}
\settowidth{\npageW}{99999} % width of the page number box
\newlength{\subnumberW}
\settowidth{\subnumberW}{999.999.999} % width of the subsection number box<<<<

\newcommand*{\DotsAndPage}
{\nobreak\leaders\hbox{\normalsize\hbox to 1.75ex {\hss.\hss}}% make dots
\hfill\nobreak\rlap{\makebox[\npageW]{\etocpage}}\par}

\etocsetstyle{subsection}
{}
{\normalfont\addvspace{.5ex}\noindent\setlength{\leftskip}{7em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}}
{\llap{\makebox[\subnumberW][l]{\textit{\etocnumber}}}\etocname\DotsAndPage}
{}
%**********************************************************

Each \etocsetstyle command has five mandatory arguments:

\etocsetstyle{⟨levelname⟩}{⟨start⟩}{⟨prefix⟩}{⟨contents⟩}{<finish>}

After compiling twice:

This is the complete code.

\documentclass[12pt]{book}
\usepackage{tocloft}
\usepackage{etoc} 
\usepackage{ifthen}
\newcounter{int}

%% ***************************************** added <<<<
\usepackage{showframe} % only to show margins <<<<<<<<<

\newlength{\npageW}
\settowidth{\npageW}{99999} % width of the page number box
\newlength{\subnumberW}
\settowidth{\subnumberW}{999.999.999} % width of the subsection number box<<<<

\newcommand*{\DotsAndPage}
{\nobreak\leaders\hbox{\normalsize\hbox to 1.75ex {\hss.\hss}}% make dots
\hfill\nobreak\rlap{\makebox[\npageW]{\etocpage}}\par}

\etocsetstyle{subsection}
{}
{\normalfont\addvspace{.5ex}\noindent\setlength{\leftskip}{7em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}}
{\llap{\makebox[\subnumberW][l]{\textit{\etocnumber}}}\etocname\DotsAndPage}
{}
%**********************************************************

\begin{document}    
    
              
    \setcounter{int}{1}
    \loop
    \chapter{This is my chapter number \theint}
    stuff
    \addtocounter{int}{1}
    \ifnum \value{int}<45
    \repeat
    
    \setcounter{int}{1}
    \loop
    \section{This is my section number \theint}
    stuff
    \addtocounter{int}{1}
    \ifnum \value{int}<100
    \repeat
    
    \etocsetnexttocdepth{2}
    \etocsettocstyle{\subsection*{Local contents}}{}
    \cftsubsecindent 0pt
    \localtableofcontents
    \setcounter{int}{1}
    \loop
    \subsection{This is my subsection number \theint}
    stuff
    \addtocounter{int}{1}
    \ifnum \value{int}<1000
    \repeat
    
\end{document}

UPDATE after a follow-up question.

In practice, it is necessary to define the upper levels: section and chapter to obtain a coherent table of contents, taking into account the maximum number of digits of sections and subsections.

For example

%% ***************************************** added <<<<
\usepackage{showframe} % only to show margins <<<<<<<<< 
    
\newlength{\chapterW}
\settowidth{\chapterW}{999} % width of the chapter number box   
\newlength{\pageW}
\settowidth{\pageW}{99999} % width of the page number box
\newlength{\snumberW}
\settowidth{\snumberW}{999.999} % width of the section number box<<<<
\newlength{\subnumberW}
\settowidth{\subnumberW}{999.999.999} % width of the subsection number box<<<<

\newcommand*{\DotsAndPage}
{\nobreak\leaders\hbox{\normalsize\hbox to 1.75ex {\hss.\hss}}% make dots
    \hfill\nobreak\rlap{\makebox[\pageW]{\etocpage}}\par}

\etocsetstyle{subsection}
{}
{\normalfont\addvspace{.5ex}\noindent\setlength{\leftskip}{\dimexpr \chapterW + \snumberW + 5.5em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}}
{\llap{\makebox[\subnumberW][l]{\textit{\etocnumber}}}\etocname\DotsAndPage}
{}

\etocsetstyle{section}
{}
{\normalfont\addvspace{.5ex}\noindent\setlength{\leftskip}{\dimexpr \chapterW + 3.5em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}}
{\llap{\makebox[\snumberW][l]{\textit{\etocnumber}}}\etocname\DotsAndPage}
{}

\etocsetstyle{chapter} 
{}
{\bfseries\addvspace{.8ex}\setlength{\leftskip}{1.5em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}\noindent}
{\llap{\makebox[\chapterW][l]{\etocnumber}}\etocname \hfill\nobreak\rlap{\makebox[\pageW]{\etocpage}}\par}
{}  
%   **********************************************************

Remark

You can modify the formatting of subsection only for a local table of contents (for example to set a smaller indent)

      ...
    \etocsetnexttocdepth{2}     
    \etocsetstyle{subsection}
    {}
    {\normalfont\addvspace{.5ex}\noindent\setlength{\leftskip}{7em}\setlength{\rightskip}{2em}}
    {\llap{\makebox[\subnumberW][l]{\textit{\etocnumber}}}\etocname\DotsAndPage}
    {}      
    \etocsettocstyle{\subsection*{Local contents}}{}
    ....

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to generate table of contents for each section that includes all its subsections

Problem with localtableofcontents from package etoc

Related Question