Text Formatting ⇒ LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item

[GleasSpty]

Here is the code for a minimal working example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
\section*{First Section}
\end{center}

Stuff in first section.

\begin{center}
\section*{Second Section}
\end{center}

Stuff in second section.

\end{document}

It throws me the error: "! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item."
If I remove the three lines:

Code: Select all

\begin{center}
\section*{Second Section}
\end{center}

then everything typsets fine.

What's going on here?

Thanks much.

[josephwright]

You don't alter section formatting by sticking arbitrary bits of formatting code around it. You'll need some package help, for example the sectsty package.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Alternatively you could use the titlesec package. titlesec can center the sections, there's no need to put \centering before or center around, for example:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\section}{%
\centering\normalfont\Large\bfseries}{\thesection}{1em}{}

The titlesec package provides an extensive documentation.

Stefan