General ⇒ Custom headers impossible ?

[xApple]

Hello,
I just started using Latex, thinking it could be a nice thing to do for my next report hand-in forgetting my classical WYSIWYG software. However, a few minutes into the task and I am already stuck on strange problem. Before even typing the content of report I tried to mimic the cool header I usually use in all my reports - a small box with my name, the name of the professor, the date and the page number.

This simple problem of having a custom header appear on the top of every page proved to be near impossible to solve. I searched the web, googled extensively, ended up reading all the documentation of the "fancyheaders" package only to conclude this would be of no use for my problem.

Fancyheaders gives a bit more freedom on the types of headers used but not at all enough to reproduce my usual header that I have attached as illustration.

Help greatly appreciated.

[phi]

Hello,

the following could be a good starting point:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lastpage}

\pagestyle{fancy}

\setlength\headheight{4\baselineskip}
\fancyheadoffset{6em}
\let\headrule\relax

\chead{
  \begin{tabular}{|p{7cm}|p{5cm}@{}p{2cm}|}
    \hline
    \textbf{Student:} Bob Smith \newline
    \textbf{Professor:} Pierre Muller \newline
    Life Sciences Faculty &
    \textbf{Homework hand-in} \newline
    7 november 2008 \newline
    Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage} &
    LOGO \\
    \hline
  \end{tabular}
}


\begin{document}

\lipsum[1-10]

\end{document}

[xApple]

Wow, thanks alot, that indeed does do the trick pretty well !
Although I do have a little problem when adding the logo. When replacing the line "LOGO //" with the includegraphics commands as is shown here:

Code: Select all

\chead{
  \begin{tabular}{|p{7cm}|p{5cm}@{}p{3.5cm}|}
    \hline
    \textbf{Student:} Bob Smith \newline
    \textbf{Professor:} Pierre Muller \newline
    Life Sciences Faculty &
    \textbf{Homework hand-in} \newline
    7 november 2008 \newline
    Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage} &
    \includegraphics[height=15mm]{epfl.png}  \\
    \hline
  \end{tabular}
}

This causes the box to grow and the logo to be placed on the top while the text is pushed down : (
(See attachement)

Any ideas ? Thanks.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

There's a trick that will help: just insert \vspace{0pt} right before \includegraphics. For an explanation and a similar example have a look at Vertical alignment of graphics.

Stefan

[Juanjo]

An alternative could be to replace \includegraphics by \raisebox{-10mm}{\includegraphics[height=12mm]{lepfl.png}}, where instead of -10mm, you should choose an appropriate length.

In the log file, up to now, you surely have a warning like this:

Code: Select all

Package Fancyhdr Warning: \headheight is too small (48.0pt): 
 Make it at least 71.94328pt.

If one arranged the logo, you still see a warning, replace \setlength\headheight{4\baselineskip} by \setlength\headheight{XXX}, where XXX is the length suggested by the warning (72pt in the above example).

[xApple]

Thanks a lot guys ! Your last advice worked like a charm (added a little \hspace and it's perfect)
You made be feel like pursuing LaTeX and making more reports using it !

Cheers !