Add a link to the TOC

Question

I'd like to link the Table of Contents in the footer of each page.

I can achieve this thanks to this hint like so:

# In the hyperref section of the document preamble
\cfoot{\hyperlink{page.1}{TOC}}

But if I change my document so that it has a title page, and the TOC moves to page two, I'll need to change this. Is there a better way to link to the TOC? Adding a \label{} and then using a ref{} does not seem to work.

Answer 1

You could use \hypertarget to create an anchor on the toc page, for example at the beginning of the TOC page or turning the TOC heading into an anchor. Here's an example how you could do it:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}% removes header line
\fancypagestyle{plain}{% for chapter starting pages
  \fancyhf{}% clears header fields
  \cfoot{\hyperlink{contents}{TOC}}}
\cfoot{\hyperlink{contents}{TOC}}% links the TOC at the center of the page footer
\begin{document}
Title page
\cleardoublepage
\hypertarget{contents}{}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{One}
\chapter{Two}
\end{document}

Answer 2

There are several ways to do this. One would be to write the page number of the TOC directly into the .aux file as shown below. I'm sure there is a nicer, more higher-interface solution for that, but just right now (1am) I can't get it. The code below assumes that you want to link to the first ToC page and not to the title of it.

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\def\tocpage{1}% Default value will be set to correct one at \begin{document}
\cfoot{\hyperlink{page.\tocpage}{TOC}}

\begin{document}

Titlepage

\cleardoublepage % Important to get the page number right
\makeatletter
% Write directly to the `.aux` file:
\write\@auxout{\gdef\noexpand\tocpage{\number\value{page}}}%
\makeatother
\tableofcontents

\chapter{test}
\chapter{test}
\chapter{test}
\chapter{test}

\end{document}