how do I manually set a page number in a table of contents?

Question

I have a chapter (??) which is intended to be printed on the inside back cover of a booklet I am producing. I want it listed in the table of contents, but with a pointer to 'insider back cover' in the ToC, not a page number. Is this possible? If so, how?

I have been trying code which looks like this:

\addtocontents{toc}{\contentsline{chapter}{\numberline{}{Mission of our organization}{inside back cover}}}

but keep getting compilation errors which read like so:

) [60] (./backmatter/01_mission.tex
! Argument of \contentsline has an extra }.
<inserted text> 
                \par 
l.4 ...our organization}{inside back cover}}}
? q

Any guidance is appreciated. Thanks.

I just tried this: \setcounter{page}{inside back cover}
but got this error message on compilation: ` [60] (./backmatter/01_mission.tex ! Missing number, treated as zero.
i l.2 \setcounter{page}{inside back cover}` — Hugh Esco, Dec 07 '21 at 05:42
Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. — Community, Dec 07 '21 at 05:45
If you are actually printing the last page, just use \def\thepage{} or possibly \def\thepage{Cover} anywhere on the last page. \pagestyle{empty} might help. — John Kormylo, Dec 07 '21 at 15:53

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '21 at 06:03

5

Two things:

You need to \protect content that you don't want expanded, since writing to the .toc will do that.
\contentsline takes four arguments.

\documentclass{book}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{A chapter}
\addtocontents{toc}{%
  \protect\contentsline{chapter}{\protect\numberline{}Mission of our organisation}{inside back cover}{}}
\end{document}

answered Dec 07 '21 at 06:03

Werner

603,163

Thank you Werner++. That did the trick. Its indented unlike the other entries, and is not linked to its content as are the other entries. But it gives me an entry pointed to the inside back cover! Thanks again! – Hugh Esco Dec 07 '21 at 06:24
So, what does \protect mean? And how do I know when I need to use it? – Hugh Esco Dec 07 '21 at 06:38
@HughEsco: \protect avoids expansion and is often used when dealing with moving arguments (like \captions, which print their contents to the LoF/LoT). See What is the difference between Fragile and Robust commands? When and why do we need \protect? – Werner Dec 07 '21 at 08:45
By pointer are you talking hyperref? – John Kormylo Dec 07 '21 at 15:59

how do I manually set a page number in a table of contents?

1 Answers1