[Tex/LaTex] Switch between long and short caption in List of Figures

table of contents

I have a long thesis in the works, and I am not 100% sure what the requirements are for the display of the List of Figure section. Currently, all my figures have a long caption and a short caption:

\caption[Short Caption]{Long Caption}

and i would like to be able to switch all the captions in my \listoffigures between the two options in case I decide on one style or another.

Best Answer

This code enables either only long captions in the LoF or the regular short ones, as given in the optional argument to the \caption macro (well, actually the [...] delimited argument of \@caption)

I added a switch to control the behaviour:

Say \addcaptionsshorttrue to use only the short captions
Say \addcaptionsshortfalse to use the long entries

I've tested this with book, article, memoir and scrbook classes.

In addition, the redefined \caption command checks first if the \@captype macro expands to figure, i.e. it is a figure caption. Otherwise every caption (using the \@captype mechanism) would write either long or short entry to its relevant ToC.

No change is done for \captionof from caption package.

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{xparse}

\usepackage{pgffor}


\makeatletter
\let\latex@@caption\caption

\newif\ifallcaptionsshort% toggle switch
\allcaptionsshorttrue% Use the short ones


\RenewDocumentCommand{\caption}{+o+m}{%
  \def\@figcaptype{figure}
  \ifx\@captype\@figcaptype
  \ifallcaptionsshort
  \IfValueTF{#1}{% 
    \latex@@caption[#1]{#2}%
  }{%
    \latex@@caption[#2]{#2}% No [#1] given, use the long caption then!
  }
  \else
  \latex@@caption[#2]{#2}%
  \fi
  \else
  \IfValueTF{#1}{% 
    \latex@@caption[#1]{#2}%
  }{%
    \latex@@caption[#2]{#2}% No [#1] given, use the long caption then!
  }
  \fi
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}


\allcaptionsshortfalse% Use the long ones
\listoffigures
\listoftables

\foreach \x in {1,...,10}{%
\begin{figure}
  \caption[Short title \x]{Some long dummy figure caption \x}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}
  \caption[Short table \x]{Some long dummy table caption \x}
\end{table}
}


\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] List of Figures – how to add caption label

You could use the tocloft package; an example:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{tocloft}

\newlength{\mylen}

\renewcommand{\cftfigpresnum}{\figurename\enspace}
\renewcommand{\cftfigaftersnum}{:}
\settowidth{\mylen}{\cftfigpresnum\cftfigaftersnum}
\addtolength{\cftfignumwidth}{\mylen}

\begin{document}

\listoffigures
\begin{figure}[!ht]
  \centering
  \rule{2cm}{2cm}
  \caption{test figure one}
  \label{fig:test1}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[!ht]
  \centering
  \rule{2cm}{2cm}
  \caption{test figure two}
  \label{fig:test2}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

If you want tocloft to use default LaTeX formatting (so it won't "mess up" for example the layout of your table of contents and so on) you can use the titles option of the package:

\usepackage[titles]{tocloft}

[Tex/LaTex] Include both short and long caption in list of figures

This is a way. Let's define a new command \doublecaption to be used when you want that behavior in the LoF:

\makeatletter
\def\doublecaption{%
   \ifx\@captype\@undefined
     \@latex@error{\noexpand\caption outside float}\@ehd
     \expandafter\@gobble
   \else
     \refstepcounter\@captype
     \expandafter\@firstofone
   \fi
   {\@dblarg{\@doublecaption\@captype}}%
}
\long\def\@doublecaption#1[#2]#3{%
  \par
  \addcontentsline{\csname ext@#1\endcsname}{#1}%
    {\protect\numberline{\csname the#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #3\newline#2}}%
  \begingroup
    \@parboxrestore
    \if@minipage
      \@setminipage
    \fi
    \normalsize
    \@makecaption{\csname fnum@#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #3}\par
  \endgroup}
\makeatother

The definition is taken from the normal \caption and modified to fit your needs.

In the tocloft settings, remove

\renewcommand\cftfigaftersnumb{\\}

and add

\newlength\mylength
\settowidth\mylength{\cftfigpresnum}
\addtolength\cftfignumwidth{\mylength}

MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\usepackage[titles]{tocloft}
\addtocontents{lof}{\cftpagenumbersoff{figure}}
\renewcommand\listfigurename{Figure Legends}
\renewcommand\cftfigpresnum{\bfseries Figure }
\renewcommand\cftfigaftersnum{\bfseries :}
%\renewcommand\cftfigaftersnumb{\\}
\renewcommand{\cftdotsep}{\cftnodots}
\setlength\cftbeforefigskip{12pt}

\newlength\mylength
\settowidth\mylength{\cftfigpresnum}
\addtolength\cftfignumwidth{\mylength}

\makeatletter
\def\doublecaption{%
   \ifx\@captype\@undefined
     \@latex@error{\noexpand\caption outside float}\@ehd
     \expandafter\@gobble
   \else
     \refstepcounter\@captype
     \expandafter\@firstofone
   \fi
   {\@dblarg{\@doublecaption\@captype}}%
}
\long\def\@doublecaption#1[#2]#3{%
  \par
  \addcontentsline{\csname ext@#1\endcsname}{#1}%
    {\protect\numberline{\csname the#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #3\newline#2}}%
  \begingroup
    \@parboxrestore
    \if@minipage
      \@setminipage
    \fi
    \normalsize
    \@makecaption{\csname fnum@#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #3}\par
  \endgroup}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]
\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering \includegraphics{image1}
  \doublecaption[Normally a much longer legend for the first figure.]{Title for first fig}
\end{figure}
\lipsum[2]
\begin{figure}[ht]
  \centering \includegraphics{image2}
  \caption{Title for second fig}
\end{figure}

\clearpage
\listoffigures

\end{document}

Output:

enter image description here

EDIT

Please next time, post examples with all relevant loaded packages...

To let it work with subcaption, we'll define two commands:

\doublecaption, to be used in figures with no subfigures.
\doublesubcaption, to be used in figures with subfigures.

Substitute the above code starting with \makeatletter and ending with \makeatother with this one (require the etoolbox package):

\makeatletter
\let\doublecaption\caption%
\patchcmd{\doublecaption}%
  {\@caption}%
  {\@doublecaption}%
  {}%
  {}%
\let\@doublecaption\@caption%
\patchcmd{\@doublecaption}%
  {\addcontentsline{\csname ext@#1\endcsname}{#1}%
    {\protect\numberline{\csname the#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #2}}}%
  {\addcontentsline{\csname ext@#1\endcsname}{#1}%
    {\protect\numberline{\csname the#1\endcsname}{\ignorespaces #3\newline#2}}}%
  {}%
  {}%
\let\doublesubcaption\doublecaption%
\patchcmd{\doublesubcaption}%
  {\refstepcounter\@captype}%
  {\relax}%
  {}%
  {}%
\makeatother