XeTeX ⇒ Colour coded Page Tabs

[paulsp]

Hello,

could someone please offer some help? I'm trying to create colour coded page tabs in a report, so that when it is printed there will be different colour rectangles along the edge of each page. Different colours for each section. The name of the section will also appear in the tabs.

Here is the code I have so far. It almost works, but there are tabs appearing on blank pages. Also it does not seem to pick up the name of the section until a page or two after the section has started. Any Ideas anyone?

Code: Select all

\documentclass[10pt,x11names,svgnames,twoside]{book}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[
  a4paper,
  left=1.2in,
  right=1in,
  top=1in,
  bottom=1in,
  headheight=\baselineskip,
  headsep=9mm,
  footskip=13mm,
  showframe
]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.misc}

\newcommand\MyColor{%
  \ifcase\thesection
    blue!30\or red!30\or olive!30\or magenta!30%
  \else
    green!30%
  \fi%
}

\fancypagestyle{plain}{%
%% Clear all headers and footers
\fancyhf{}

%% Left headers on odd pages
\fancyhead[LO]{%
  \rotatebox{90}{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture]
      \node[
        fill=\MyColor,
        text=white,
        font=\small,
        inner ysep=2pt,
        inner xsep=2pt,
        outer sep=0,						
        rectangle,
        anchor=west,
        xshift=-70mm,
        yshift=5mm,
        text width= 5.75cm,
        text height=0.75cm,
        minimum height=1cm,
        maximum height=1cm,
        minimum width=6cm,
        maximum width=6cm,
      ] at ($ (current page.north west) + (1cm,0cm) + (-1*\thesection cm,0cm) $)
      {\sffamily\itshape\small\nouppercase{\leftmark}};
    \end{tikzpicture}%
  }%
}

%% Right headers on even pages
\fancyhead[RE]{%
  \rotatebox{90}{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture]
      \node[
        fill=\MyColor,
        text=white,
        font=\small,
        inner ysep=2pt,
        inner xsep=2pt,
        outer sep=0,			
        rectangle,
        anchor=east,
        xshift=-51mm,
        yshift=-26mm,
        text width= 5.75cm,
        text height=0.75cm,
        minimum height=1cm,
        maximum height=1cm,
        minimum width=6cm,
        maximum width=6cm,
      ] at ($ (current page.north east) + (1cm,0cm) + (-1*\thesection cm,0cm) $)
      {\sffamily\itshape\small\nouppercase{\leftmark}};
    \end{tikzpicture}%
  }%
}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt}
\fancyfoot[R]{\thepage}

\pagestyle{plain}
\renewcommand\sectionmark[1]{\markboth{\thesection.~#1}{}}