[Tex/LaTex] Manually create a table of contents (instead of automatically generated)

table of contents

Is there a way to manually create a Table of Contents (by writing each item one by one), instead of using \tableofcontents which automatically generates one?

Here is why I need this. I need to compile several different PDF files into one single one. And those files are written by different document classes and in different settings; it is hard to put them into one single LaTeX file. So, I will put those PDF files together and only change page numbers. But then I need a table of contents page and I need to create this one out of nothing.

Best Answer

Assume you have files file1.pdf (3 pages), file2.pdf (6 pages) and file3.pdf (9 pages) that you want to compile into a single PDF containing 19 pages, where the first page is a Table of Contents.

Construct the contents using a set of manual function for (say) \sections and \subsections. The idea would be to write directly to the .toc file the sectional unit number, title and page number:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}

% file1.pdf: pages  1- 3
% file2.pdf: pages  4- 9
% file3.pdf: pages 10-18

\newcommand{\addsection}[3]{\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\contentsline{section}{\protect\numberline{#1}#2}{#3}}}
\newcommand{\addsubsection}[3]{\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\contentsline{subsection}{\protect\numberline{#1}#2}{#3}}}

\begin{document}

% Construct contents
\addsection{1}{File 1-1}{1}
\addsubsection{1.1}{File 1-1.1}{2}
\addsection{2}{File 1-2}{3}
\addsection{3}{File 2-1}{4}
\addsubsection{3.1}{File 2-1.1}{7}
\addsubsection{3.2}{File 2-1.2}{8}
\addsection{4}{File 2-2}{9}
\addsection{5}{File 3-1}{10}
\addsubsection{5.1}{File 3-1.1}{10}
\addsubsection{5.2}{File 3-1.2}{11}
\addsubsection{5.3}{File 3-1.3}{12}
\addsection{6}{File 3-2}{17}
\addsubsection{6.1}{File 3-2.1}{18}
\addsubsection{6.2}{File 3-2.2}{18}

\tableofcontents

\end{document}

You can expand the structure to lower levels, if needed.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to generate a list of appendices, separate from the table of contents (ToC)

A somewhat hackish way to get a list of appendices in scrartcl is to add the following at the start of the appendix:

\appendix
% Set the name for the list of appenices
\newcommand\listoftoaname{Appendices}

% force table of contents to load the list of appendices
\let\oldlistoftoc\listoftoc
\renewcommand\listoftoc[1]{\oldlistoftoc{toa}}
\tableofcontents
\let\listoftoc\oldlistoftoc  

% we will now redefine the sectioning commands so that that put entries
% into the list of appendices. The redefinitions are rather simplistic
% and break the starred versions and the optional argument.
% Thus the redefinitions have to be added after the \tableofcontents call.

\let\oldaddcontentsline\addcontentsline
\newcommand\hackedaddcontentsline[3]{\oldaddcontentsline{toa}{#2}{#3}}

\let\oldsection\section
\renewcommand*\section[1]{%
  \let\addcontentsline\hackedaddcontentsline%
  \oldsection{#1}%
  \let\addcontentsline\oldaddcontentsline%
}
\let\oldsubsection\subsection
\renewcommand*\subsection[1]{%
  \let\addcontentsline\hackedaddcontentsline%
  \oldsubsection{#1}%
  \let\addcontentsline\oldaddcontentsline%
}
\let\oldsubsubsection\subsubsection
\renewcommand*\subsubsection[1]{%
  \let\addcontentsline\hackedaddcontentsline%
  \oldsubsubsection{#1}%
  \let\addcontentsline\oldaddcontentsline%
}

For scrreprt and scrbook, you need to add an analogous redefinition for \chapter. As the redefinition of the sectioning commands are rather simplistic, they break the starred versions and the optional argument. Thus before any starred sections (like the bibliography), you should revert the redefinitions with \let\section\oldsection.

[Tex/LaTex] How to create an explicit table of contents for manual editing

The contents of the Table of Contents created by the \tableofcontents command are stored in a file named \jobname.toc; here, \jobname is (usually) the name of the main tex input file, e.g., mydoc.tex. After the .toc file has been created by LaTeX, you are free to replace the command \tableofcontents with \input mydoc.toc (note that you need to supply the filename's exension if it's not ".tex"). LaTeX would then no longer update the .toc file during each compilation, and you'd be free to edit its contents by hand.

That said, you may want to think twice about pursuing this approach. You mention that your document takes a long time to compile. Unless there are literally hundreds of sectioning commands in the document, with each one writing information back to the .toc file, I can't imagine that creating the .toc file takes up more than a trivial portion of the total compilation time. Thus, while compile time savings achieved by no longer using the \tableofcontents command would almost certainly be negligible, should you ever make changes to the document that lead to (i) changes in page numbers of existing sectioning headers or (ii) new or deleted sectioning headers, you would have to spend nontrivial amounts of your own time editing the .toc file to keep its contents in sync with the main body of the document.

If you don't like the look of the table of contents that's created by LaTeX's default mechanism, do consider seriously using a package such as tocloft to change the look and layout of the ToC.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to generate a list of appendices, separate from the table of contents (ToC)

[Tex/LaTex] How to create an explicit table of contents for manual editing

Related Question