Page Layout ⇒ Make section headings always appear furthest from the spine

[bombcar]

I'm using \documentclass{book} and would like to have the \section headings always be away from the binding, i.e, on the left on even pages and flush right on odd pages. I tried using sectsty and titlesec but couldn't figure out how to flush outward depending on the page.

The reason for this is so I can use lilypond-book and section headings to number the songs automatically for me.

[Megan]

Try fancyhdr and check out the manual for how to use it.

Minimalist I know but I hope it helps

[localghost]

Try fancyhdr and check out the manual for how to use it. [...]

I think the request is not about positioning the headers, but more the headings. In this case the titlesec package would be a better help.


Best regards
Thorsten¹

[bombcar]

I tried using titlesec which seems that it should be able to do what I want, but I couldn't figure it out.

What I'm looking for is:

SectionNumberLeft {Section Title, Centered}

on left pages, and:

{Section Title, Centered} SectionNumberRight

on even pages.

[bombcar]

I've gotten closer (I found how to center the section headings) but I can't get the Section number to move to the left/right depending on even/odd page.

Here's what I have (titlesec didn't work because it somehow broke my \songsection command}:

Code: Select all

%!TEX TS-program = Lilypond-LaTeX
\documentclass[b5paper]{book}
\usepackage{vmargin}        % This package is used to easily set the margins
\usepackage{sectsty}

\sectionfont{\centering}

% The following set the paper size (to match the documentclass) and the margins

\setpapersize{B5}
\setmargnohfrb{15mm}{8mm}{10mm}{8mm}

% The following create some commands to simplify the document:

\newcommand{\songinfo}[4]{\noindent #1 \hfill #2\\
#4 \hspace*{\fill} \textsc{#3}\\}

% \songinfo{Poet}{Composer}{Music}{Copyright}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\makesongs}{%
  \makeindex
  \bgroup
     \def\indexsection\numberline##1##2\endindexsection{%
       \protected@write\@indexfile{}{\string\indexentry{##2}{##1}}}%
     \def\contentsline##1##2##3{\indexsection##2\endindexsection}%
     \@input@{\jobname.toc}%
  \egroup
}

\newcommand{\listofsongs}{%
\begingroup
  \@input@{\jobname.ind}%
  \if@filesw
    \expandafter\newwrite\csname tf@toc\endcsname
    \immediate\openout\csname tf@toc\endcsname\jobname.toc\relax
  \fi
  \@nobreakfalse
\endgroup}

\newcommand*{\songsection}[2][]{%
  \def\thesongtitle{#1}%
  \ifx\thesongtitle\@empty
    \section{#2}%
  \else
    \section[#1@#2]{#2}%
  \fi
}
\makeatother

% The following redefines the \section command to suppress the chapter numbers

\renewcommand\thesection{\arabic{section}} 

\raggedbottom

\makesongs

\begin{document}

\listofsongs

\newpage
\songsection{A Song Title}
\songinfo{A Poet}{A Composer}{A Music}{\copyright 1042 Music}

\newpage
\songsection{Another Song Title}
\songinfo{Another Poet}{Another Composer}{Another Music}{\copyright 1452 Music}

\end{document}

This is made (and needs makeindex with a file containing:

Code: Select all

preamble "\\section*{Songs}"
postamble ""
group_skip ""
item_0 "\n\\contentsline\{section\}\{"
delim_0 "\}\{"
delim_t "\}"
headings_flag 0
level '>'

to work - and it does, except I can't move the section number. I experimented with redefining @seccntformat as suggested in the sectsty package, but couldn't get it to do what I want.

(Note - this is for LilyPond-book but the above example works fine with LaTeX alone).

[bombcar]

I finally figured out how to use the titlesec package, and this gets closer to what I want:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{name=\section,page=even}[runin]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{\thesection}{1em}{\hfill}[\hspace*{\fill}\\ ]
\titleformat{name=\section,page=odd}[runin]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{}{1em}{\hfill}[\hspace*{\fill}\thesection\\ ]
\titleformat{name=\section,numberless=true,page=odd}[block]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries\center}{}{0pt}{}
\titleformat{name=\section,numberless=true,page=even}[block]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries\center}{}{0pt}{}

It's probably incorrect, but it works. The only issue I see is the \hfills are not perfectly centering the section heading; but it's close enough.

[bombcar]

This is what I finalized on:

Code: Select all

\titleformat{name=\section,page=even}[runin]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{\makebox[0pt][l]{\thesection}}{0pt}{\hfill}[\hspace*{\fill}\\]
\titleformat{name=\section,page=odd}[runin]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{}{0pt}{\hfill}[{\hspace*{\fill}\makebox[0pt][r]{\thesection}}\\]
\titleformat{name=\section,numberless=true,page=odd}[block]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries\center}{}{0pt}{}
\titleformat{name=\section,numberless=true,page=even}[block]
        {\normalfont\Large\bfseries\center}{}{0pt}{}

\makebox[0pt] was the key.