Page Layout ⇒ Start ToC, LoF and LoT on odd Pages in an Article

[thejesus]

Hello, friends!

My thesis committee just made me a silly request: the Table of Contents, List of Figures and their equivalents must go only on odd pages. The main body of the text must go double-sided. I'm using a custom class made up on article class, and all is almost done, except the ToC, LoF and LoT on the odd pages. Can someone help me?

[kaiserkarl13]

That's not a silly request at all---if it's double-sided, that's how it should be done.

There are optional arguments to the document classes report and book that do that: twoside means make the text double-sided (which basically means that odd-numbered pages have a wide left margin and even-numbered pages have a wide right margin), while openright means start new chapters on odd-numbered pages. There is also an openany option which means start new chapters wherever they naturally occur.

The article class is an ill-advised choice for doing a thesis or dissertation (or any other long document); use of "report" is much more likely to yield the result you want. If the above options to your class don't work, I might try changing the class to base itself off report instead of article---that might solve your problem without creating additional headaches. You could also see how the report class (with openright) defines \chapter and such, and then redefine \section in your article-based class to do something similar.

[localghost]

[…] twoside means make the text double-sided (which basically means that odd-numbered pages have a wide left margin and even-numbered pages have a wide right margin), […]

In a proper page construction it is exactly the other way round. The outer margins should be twice as wide as the inner margins, which means that the outer margins are as wide as both inner margins. It is possible to influence that by specifying a binding correction. The KOMA-Script user guide has detailed explanations in this regard. And as far as I know the memoir user guide, too.


Thorsten

[kaiserkarl13]

It depends on the type of book---in a thesis or dissertation, the margins are generally supposed to be more or less uniform all the way around the text, but since the inner margins get bound, you have to include some extra margin there so you don't obscure the text when the volume is bound.

But the point is, the margins on odd and even numbered pages are different with "twoside"; what they are depends on the style.

[localghost]

It depends on the type of book---in a thesis or dissertation, the margins are generally supposed to be more or less uniform all the way around the text, but since the inner margins get bound, you have to include some extra margin there so you don't obscure the text when the volume is bound. […]

Uniform margins are just caused by the fact that a thesis is mostly printed one-sided. But I never saw a one-sided dissertation. And even in a one-sided document at least the vertical margins are not uniform. Typographically this is for sure incorrect. And as I already mentioned, there is the possibility to add a binding correction, which is respected during the calculation of the type area. At least KOMA-Script works this way.

[…] But the point is, the margins on odd and even numbered pages are different with "twoside"; what they are depends on the style.

That's clear to me. And in typographical regards there actually is no room for a "style". That's what most templates of universities do not take into account.

[thejesus]

Thanks for the advices, I really intend to re-write the class using report as base, I think too that article class is not a good choice. But I am running out of time, by now I will have to use what I have.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

welcome to the board!

the Table of Contents, List of Figures and their equivalents must go only on odd pages... all is almost done, except the ToC, LoF and LoT on the odd pages. Can someone help me?

You could use the nextpage package for it, which provides some commands but doesn't change your layout:

Code: Select all

\usepackage{nextpage}
...
\cleartooddpage
\tableofcontents
\cleartooddpage
\listoffigures

Stefan