General ⇒ Center Bibliography Heading

[pjmiller_57]

Hello Everyone,

Nearly finished my first LaTeX document. Just one more obstacle to overcome.

Earlier, I had some trouble with the TOC page numbers for my bibliography and a subsequent appendix. I did some digging and discovered I could most easily get correct page numbers using the tocbibind package. I did some additional digging and managed to change the title of the bibliography to "References".

Now I'd like to be able to center "References". I thought this would probably be easy but I'm having a difficult time with it.

Is there some simple way to get this result using tocbibind? If not, how does one go about getting "References" centered without messing up the page numbers?

Below is a code example to show what code I've been using thus far.

Thanks,

Paul

Code: Select all

\documentclass[lettersize,10pt]{article}

\usepackage[nottoc,other]{tocbibind}
\renewcommand{\tocbibname}{REFERENCES}

\begin{document}

\bibliographystyle{unsrtnat}

...

\newpage
\bibliography{AppendixA}
\phantomsection

\end{document}

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Paul,

do you want to center "REFERENCES" in the table of contents or in the body text?

Note, if you center only this section heading, but not the others, this is inconsistent style. Furthermore, capitalizing all letters is also considered bad typographic style. If you capitalize only REFERENCES, it would be again inconsistent. A consistent layout would be treating the references section the same as the other sections and section headings, respectively.

But if both are requirements and you don't have a choice, or if you really would like to treat this section different than all the others, let us know - and if you mean the table of contents (as you wrote tocbibind) or the heading in the text.

Stefan

[pjmiller_57]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for your reply. I want to center "REFERENCES" in the body text and not in the TOC. I'm also centering the title in the body text for the appendix that follows using code like that below. I'd be interested to see if the my code for including the appendix is done properly. It produces the expected result but I suspect it's not very elegant.

Your comments about consistency and typographic form are interesting. I'm trying to reproduce documents that have already been generated by someone else using Word and am following the style of those documents.

It seems to me that if you are repeatedly exposed to something that is done in a less than optimal way it can begin to look normal or even better than something that is arguably more correct. I think I've been conditioned over time to like having "REFERENCES" centered in the body text even though it is clearly inconsistent to do this.

I was also not aware that capitalizing all letters is considered bad form.

Is there some place I can go to learn more about what is and is not cosidered good form for typesetting documents and why?

Thanks for your help.

Paul

Code: Select all

\newpage
\section*{\centering APPENDIX I}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{APPENDIX I}

\renewcommand{\labelitemi}{}

\begin{itemize}
\item{\bfseries GENERAL PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS SCALE (11 ITEMS)}
   \begin{itemize}
      \item{Fatigue, tiredness, weakness}
      \item{Rash or dry skin or itching}
      \item{Trouble focusing or concentrating}
      \item{Daytime sleepiness}
      \item{Physical pain}
      \item{Sweating}
      \item{Trouble breathing or coughing}
      \item{Reduced sexual enjoyment, interest, or performance}
      \item{Trouble sleeping}
      \item{Problems with urination}
      \item{Numbness or tingling}
   \end{itemize}

...

\end{itemize}

\end{document}