How to define additional \caption* like command for Latex beamer?

Question

beamer currently is incompatible with the caption package (as described here). I would like to define an additional command that works like the \caption* command of that package, i.e. typesets the caption without label and without entry in the list of tables/figures, but has the same formatting as the regular \caption-command. Important: I do still need the normal \caption command, so I cannot just globally redefine \setbeamertemplate{caption}

I am thinking about something along the lines of

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{caption}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Some title}
  \begin{table}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      A & B \\
      C & D \\
    \end{tabular}
    \caption{Some numbered Table and its description. Even more and more and more text.}
  \end{table}

  \begin{table}
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      A & B \\
      C & D \\
    \end{tabular}
  \caption*{Some unnumbered Table and its description. Even more and more and more text.}
  \end{table}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Please add a small document to your question illustrating the problem. Then people can copy-paste-compile and experiment to find a solution, making it much easier to help and reducing the chances that an answer won't work for you. — cfr, Aug 20 '15 at 13:08
@cfr I added a minimum non-working example, but I don't think that will be helpful as the problem is caused by a bug in caption (as pointed out by Joseph Wright) and I am looking for a different approach not involving that package. — jpfeifer, Aug 20 '15 at 13:25
Do you have to call it \caption* ? All it does is write a caption without using or incrementing the float counter. The center environment will do that. — John Kormylo, Aug 20 '15 at 13:55
@JohnKormylo The center environment will center it, but the default \caption in beamer will be left-aligned. Of course, I could manually make them similar. But the goal is to inherit the formatting from the original \caption command — jpfeifer, Aug 20 '15 at 14:26
That's not what I see when I run your MWE (with \caption* removed). Anyway, you can test for the beamer class and use different definitions based on context. — John Kormylo, Aug 20 '15 at 14:38
@JohnKormylo I adjusted the MWE. If I remove the \caption* the second line is centered in the bottom table. — jpfeifer, Aug 20 '15 at 14:44
The example *is* helpful. Without it, anybody helping has to start a document from scratch. With it, they can just concentrate on the bit you need help with. So thanks for adding it! — cfr, Aug 20 '15 at 20:17

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '15 at 15:06

Here's one way to do it; \caption* inherits the same formatting as \caption (in particular, it has the same skips above and below and the single line feature):

The code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{letltxmacro}
\usepackage{xparse}

\LetLtxMacro\oldcaption\caption

\makeatletter
\RenewDocumentCommand\caption{som}{
  \IfBooleanTF{#1}
    {
      \setbeamertemplate{caption label separator}[none]
      \def\insertcaptionname{}%
      \def\insertcaptionnumber{}%
      \def\insertcaption{#3}%
      \nobreak\vskip\abovecaptionskip\nobreak
      \sbox\@tempboxa{\usebeamertemplate**{caption}}%
      \ifdim \wd\@tempboxa >\hsize
        \usebeamertemplate**{caption}\par
      \else
      \global \@minipagefalse
        \hb@xt@\hsize{\hfil\box\@tempboxa\hfil}%
      \fi
      \nobreak\vskip\belowcaptionskip\nobreak
    }
    {\oldcaption[#2]{#3}}
}
\makeatother

\newcommand\TestTable{%
    \begin{tabular}{cc}
      A & B \\
    \end{tabular}%
}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Some title}

\begin{table}
\TestTable
\caption{Some numbered Table and its description. Even more and more and more text.}
\end{table}

\begin{table}
\TestTable
\caption*{Some unnumbered Table and its description. Even more and more and more text.}
\end{table}

\begin{table}
\TestTable
\caption{Some numbered Table}
\end{table}

\begin{table}
\TestTable
\caption*{Some unnumbered Table}
\end{table}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

How to define additional \caption* like command for Latex beamer?

1 Answers1