change caption in list of tables

Question

I would like to change the caption in the List of Tables in a way it is different from the caption in the corresponding table. How can I do that? Does there exist a command to do that?

Answer 1

The default \caption provides two arguments. The first is optional and defines what is set in the List of Tables, while the latter is mandatory and is used in the setting of the actual caption. If you don't supply the former, it's passed as equivalent to the latter. So

\caption[<LoT entry>]{<regular caption>}

Here's an example:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\listoftables
\begin{table}\caption{A table}\end{table}
\begin{table}\caption[Another table]{A table}\end{table}
\end{document}

The caption package adds the optional starred version \caption* which sets the caption without the title (Table ##).

Answer 2

You can write \caption[For the table]{In the main text}