Impossible to put some math in pdfpages' addtotoc

Question

The following MCE shows that pdfpages' addtotoc option works well, even with basic math but, if the commented line is uncommented, shows that it doesn't work with less basic math (here \mathbf, though this command works well in usual ToC), the compilation failing with the error:

! Undefined control sequence.
\GenericError  ...                                
                                                    #4  \errhelp \@err@     ...
l.11   }]{example-image.pdf}

Adding \protect before \mathbf{R}^{n} doesn't help.

Do you understand what is going on and how to get around it?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\includepdf[
  pages=-,
  addtotoc={
    1,section,1,{No math},ex-1
    , 1,section,1,{Basic math: $R^{n}$},ex-2
    % , 1,section,1,{Not so basic math: $\mathbf{R}^{n}$},ex-3
  }]{example-image.pdf}
\section{$\mathbf{R}^{n}$}
\end{document}

You could put the text into a marxo or savebox in the premamble. \protect will prevent it from being expanded too soon. — John Kormylo, Dec 16 '22 at 01:22
@JohnKormylo Not very handy if there are numerous such entries in the ToC. — Denis Bitouzé, Dec 16 '22 at 07:44

Simon Dispa · Answer 1 · 2022-12-15T21:11:51.490

This is one possibility.

With unicode-math you can use \symbf{<characters>} which works for both Greek and Latin letters.

Compile with xelatex or lualatex.

bold math symbols

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{unicode-math}% added <<<<<<<<
\setmathfont{XITSMath-Regular.otf}% added <<<<<<<<
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
    \tableofcontents
    \includepdf[
    pages=-,
    addtotoc={
        1,section,1,{No math},ex-1
        , 1,section,1,{Basic math: $R^{n}$},ex-2
         , 1,section,1,{Not so basic math: $\symbf{R}^{n}$},ex-3 %changed <<<<<
    }]{example-image.pdf}
    \section{$\mathbf{R}^{n}$}
\end{document}

Or

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec} % added <<<<
\usepackage{unicode-math}% added <<<<
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
    \tableofcontents
    \includepdf[
    pages=-,
    addtotoc={
        1,section,1,{No math},ex-1
        , 1,section,1,{Basic math: $R^{n}$},ex-2
         , 1,section,1,{Not so basic math:  $\mathbf{R}^{n}$},ex-3
    }]{example-image.pdf}
    \section{$\mathbf{R}^{n}$}
\end{document}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '22 at 21:35

pdfpages uses \edef a bit to often ...

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\makeatletter
\define@key{pdfpages}{addtotoc}{\protected@edef\AM@toclist{#1,}}%replace \edef
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents

\includepdf[
  pages=-,
  addtotoc={
    %1,section,1,{No math},ex-1
    %, 1,section,1,{Basic math: $R^{n}$},ex-2
     1,section,1,{Not so basic math: $\mathbf{R}^{n}$},ex-3
  }]{example-image.pdf}
\section{$\mathbf{R}^{n}$}
\end{document}

Denis Bitouzé · Answer 3 · 2022-12-16T07:42:28.453

0

Finally, I found a solution. As shown by the following MCE, it is enough (and maybe necessary for commands with arguments: see \textit) to prevent the expansion of the culprit commands with \noexpand:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\includepdf[
  pages=-,
  addtotoc={
    1,section,1,{No math},ex-1
    , 1,section,1,{Basic math: $R^{n}$},ex-2
    , 1,section,1,{Not so basic math: {$\noexpand\mathbf{R}^{n}$}},ex-3
    , 1,section,1,{Not so basic command: \noexpand\textit{Foo}},ex-4
  }]{example-image.pdf}
\section{$\mathbf{R}^{n}$}
\end{document}

edited Dec 16 '22 at 07:42

answered Dec 15 '22 at 20:59

Denis Bitouzé

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{\unexpanded{Not so basic math: $\mathbf{R}^{n}$}} should work too. but one should check what pdfpages is doing ... – Ulrike Fischer Dec 15 '22 at 21:28

Impossible to put some math in pdfpages' addtotoc

3 Answers3