# Listing Symbols before Table of Contents

My LaTeX looks as follows (I omit somethings):

\documentclass{amsbook}

\usepackage{fancyhdr,etoolbox}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\thepage}
\fancyhead[LO]{\nouppercase\rightmark}
\fancyhead[RE]{\nouppercase\leftmark}

\newcommand{\set}{\mathsf{Set}}
\newcommand{\grp}{\mathsf{Gr}}
\newcommand{\ab}{\mathsf{Ab}}
\newcommand{\grd}{\mathsf{Grpd}}
\newcommand{\ring}{\mathsf{Ring}}

\renewcommand{\contentsname}{Table of contents}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@tocline}
{\hfil}
{\leaders\hbox{\,.\,}\hfil}{}{}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\pagestyle{plain}

\frontmatter

\title{\textsc{AAAZZZ}}
\author{LZ}

\maketitle

\chapter*{Abstract}
The goal of this notes is to describe \ldots

\chapter*{List of Abbreviations and Symbols}

\tableofcontents

\mainmatter

\cleardoublepage

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\pagestyle{fancy}

\chapter{Preliminaries on A}

\chapter{Results on Z}

\appendix

\chapter{More results on Z}

\backmatter

\begin{thebibliography}{10}

\end{thebibliography}

\end{document}


I want to list some symbols I defined myself (as in the code above):

\newcommand{\set}{\mathsf{Set}}
\newcommand{\grp}{\mathsf{Gr}}
\newcommand{\ab}{\mathsf{Ab}}
\newcommand{\grd}{\mathsf{Grpd}}
\newcommand{\ring}{\mathsf{Ring}}


(stands one by one for the category of sets, groups, abelian groups, groupoids, rings)in my "List of Abbreviations and Symbols" chapter (just 1 or 2 pages) before toc. I find some relevant ways here, here and here, but none works in my situation, using either nomencl or glossaries. How to adapt at least one of them to make it work?

One more question: in my situation as above, how to use French and possible other languages with accents (in the English text), like "étale, Ngô Bảo Châu" (rather than using \'etale etc. each time, because I use that quite often)?

• I would just use \section*{List of Symbols} and a tabular or itemize, unless you want page numbers (first usage?) added. – John Kormylo Dec 22 '19 at 23:52
• For étale, Ngô Bảo Châu, I type them in directly and compile with xelatex. The default font (Latin Modern Roman) already has the characters. Otherwise, load a desired (system, truetype) font using fontspec package. – Cicada Dec 23 '19 at 2:27
• @Cicada If I type them in directly then they appear weird in pdf, I don't know why. I'm using the above codes in texstudio on Mac. I expect to load only some simple packages, I tried quite a lot but failed always. – Lao-tzu Dec 23 '19 at 6:54
• How do you compile? xelatex or pdflatex? For languages, polyglossia or babel packages, with xelatex. If you have to use pdflatex, fonts and accented letters become very laborious. pdflatex does not know Unicode. – Cicada Dec 23 '19 at 7:17
• I think there is only one way (only one icon) to compile in texstudio (or I only know one way to compile in texstudio on Mac). – Lao-tzu Dec 23 '19 at 7:29