Grouping figures in \listoffigures

Question

Is it possible to group together several figures in the List of Figures. For example a time step sequence where there are 4 or 5 different figures would only have one entry.

Answer 1

You can add lines to the listoffigures file (\jobaname.lof) using the command

\addcontentsline{lof}{section}{Time step sequence}

If you use the caption package, then you can typeset your captions using

\caption[]{first}%

which will put an empty entry in the lof. This produces

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{caption}

\begin{document}

\listoffigures

\addcontentsline{lof}{section}{Time step sequence}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\rule{20pt}{30pt}
\caption[]{first}%
\label{fig:first}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\rule{20pt}{30pt}
\caption{second}%
\label{fig:second}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Or perhaps you want something like '1-2: Time step sequences'? In which case, you can use

\addcontentsline{lof}{figure}{\ref{fig:first}|\ref{fig:second} Time step sequences }

which produces