A quick hack with redefinition of \caption
.
If the \ifnumberonly
boolean test is true, then the usual caption content is displayed in the body but omitted in the Lof
or LoT
Say \numberonlytrue
to enable the 'easy' display in the LoT
or \numberonlyfalse
for the usual content.
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepackage{xparse}
\newif\ifnumberonly
\numberonlytrue
\makeatletter
\let\caption@@orig\caption
\RenewDocumentCommand{\caption}{som}{%
\IfBooleanTF{#1}{%
\caption@@orig*{#3}%
}{%
\ifnumberonly
\caption@@orig[]{#3}
\else
\IfValueTF{#2}{%
\caption@@orig[#2]{#3}
}{%
\caption@@orig{#3}
}%
\fi
}%
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\listoftables
\listoffigures
\foreach \x in {1,...,20}{%
\begin{figure}
\caption{Figure \x\ but you won't see this}
\end{figure}
\begin{table}
\caption{Table \x\ but you won't see this}
\end{table}
}
\end{document}

\caption[]{your caption text}
– samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Apr 16 '17 at 22:01\documentclass
and ending with\end{document}
) that contains the main features of your document and that can be compiled. – gernot Apr 16 '17 at 22:06