Page Layout ⇒ Navigator on Margin

[yin]

Hi,

I have been looking for this everywhere but couldn't find anything...

I would like to create some kind of navigator on the margin. The kind of navigation you see in dictionaries (the letters are on the side so that you know which sides you have to look up for each letter)
I have to create the layout of our yearbook. Therefore it would be really nice to have the chapter names on the margin if you understand what I mean...

Anyone an idea how I could manage this?

Thanks!

[frabjous]

Here's an example of something like this, which I made by modifying the "Thumb Indices" example found in the documentation for the fancyhdr package, section 21 (pp. 20-21). Probably you would need to heavily modify it for your purposes (especially the values with "put"). You'll probably want to read that section too -- in fact, the original example there may be more suitable for your purposes.

Code: Select all

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[english]{babel} % needed for blindtext
\usepackage{blindtext} % for autogenerating text
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
%
% 
\newcommand{\rightchapname}{\thepage
  \begin{picture}(0,0)
    \put(20,-150){\leftmark}
  \end{picture}}
\newcommand{\leftchapname}{%
  \begin{picture}(0,0)
    \put(-50,-150){\leftmark}
  \end{picture}%
  \thepage}
%
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[RO]{\rightchapname}
\fancyhead[LE]{\leftchapname}
%
% Remove chapter number from chapter name in headers/footers 
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{#1}{}}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Beginning}
\Blindtext[10][10]

\chapter{Middle}
\Blindtext[10][10]

\chapter{End}
\Blindtext[10][10]

\end{document}

[yin]

hi

thank you very much. I didn't know how those things were called, but the thumb-indexes are exactly what I've searched for.

[frabjous]

I haven't tried it yet, but you may also be interested in a brand new package: thumby -- so new, it may not even be on your local CTAN mirror yet.