Page Layout ⇒ Frontpage layout

[jannetta]

I need to generate a title page with the following layout:

template

frontpage.jpg (2.97 KiB) Viewed 40462 times

What I have at the moment is this:

What I have at the moment

frontpage2.jpg (2.83 KiB) Viewed 40455 times

What do I need to do to vertically distribute and alight the items on the title page. The tags I'm using to generate what I get is:

Code: Select all

\title{An investigation of service incompatibility side effects of refactoring}
\subtitle{A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Open University's Master of Science Degree in Computing for Commerce and Industry}
\author{Jannetta S Steyn\\(R5251255)}
\date{\emph{January 2009}\\Word Count: xxxxx}
\maketitle
\newpage

If I need to provide any more information, please just ask.

Thank you in advance for anyone that can offer some help.

Kind Regards
Jannetta

[localghost]

Whatever document class you are using (you didn't tell us), use the titlepage environment. Within this environment you are quite free in creating the contents. If you run into trouble, attach a larger picture of the template for a better view of the layout so it would be easier to give specific help.


Best regards
Thorsten¹

[mas]

In addition to Thorsten's suggestion, you can also try the titling package.

Regards.

[jannetta]

I have, as Thorsten suggested, used titlepage and managed to get it looking exactly the way the template dictates. I used

Code: Select all

/ //

to vertically space the sections. Is this okay or is there a better (or a right) way to do it?

There is just one problem which I can't get my head around. For some reason there is now a second page (after the title page) just with the date on. However I haven't duplicated the date command ?!?! I have used

Code: Select all

\textbf{\today \\}

to display the date in the correct place, but I have no idea what causes the second date to appear on the second page. It is right at the top of the page. It is in the centre, but it is not bold.

I'll just include my title page here:

Code: Select all

\begin{titlepage}
\begin{center}
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\{\large \bfseries
An investigation of service incompatibility side effects of refactoring\\
}
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
{\small 
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment\\
of the requirements for the Open University's\\
Master of Science Degree\\
in Computing for Commerce and Industry\\
}
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
\ \\
Jannetta S Steyn\\
(XXXXXXXX)\\
\ \\
\textbf{\today \\}
\ \\
Word Count: {\color{red}xxxxx}\\
\end{center}
\end{titlepage}

Oh, an another problem. How do I change the date format from "December 22, 2008" to "22 December 2008"?

My thanks for your help so far.
Jannetta

[localghost]

You can do it much shorter and so much more comfortable.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\parindent0em

\begin{document}
  \begin{titlepage}
    \centering
    \vspace*{11\baselineskip}
    \large
    \bfseries
    An investigation of service incompatibility side effects of refactoring \\[5\baselineskip]
    \normalfont
    \small
    A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment \\
    of the requirements for the Open University's \\
    Master of Science Degree \\
    in Computing for Commerce and Industry \\
    \vfill
    Jannetta S Steyn \\
    (XXXXXXXX) \\[2\baselineskip]
    \textbf{\today} \\[2\baselineskip]
    Word Count: {\color{red}xxxxx}
  \end{titlepage}
\end{document}

Concerning the date format you should use the babel package with the suitable option for your language.

[jannetta]

Hi Guys

It's coming on really nicely . I have used the shortcuts and babel and I also downloaded and installed datetime, to get the date formatted to 22 December 2008. The default British date for babel makes it 22nd and I didn't want that.

Now I still have the mystery date on page two. I tried something and now I'm even more puzzled. I removed \today and the date in the proper place was not there, but the date on the second page is still there and it is in the format: Monday 22 December, 2008. I have NO IDEA what causes this date to be inserted. Any ideas???

Regards
Jannetta

[localghost]

[...] Now I still have the mystery date on page two. I tried something and now I'm even more puzzled. I removed \today and the date in the proper place was not there, but the date on the second page is still there and it is in the format: Monday 22 December, 2008. I have NO IDEA what causes this date to be inserted. Any ideas??? [...]

For this issue you have to build a minimal working example (MWE) to make this behaviour comprehensible. Note that you don't need to use the \maketitle command any more. Perhaps you didn't delete this command after creating your title page.

Concerning the date format, I learned that it has changed in its representation and now appears in what is called the "clean look". For the future the isodate package might be an alternative solution.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,english]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage[cleanlook]{isodate}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\parindent0em

\begin{document}
  \begin{titlepage}
    \centering
    \vspace*{11\baselineskip}
    \large
    \bfseries
    An investigation of service incompatibility side effects of refactoring \\[5\baselineskip]
    \normalfont
    \small
    A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment \\
    of the requirements for the Open University's \\
    Master of Science Degree \\
    in Computing for Commerce and Industry \\
    \vfill
    Jannetta S Steyn \\
    (XXXXXXXX) \\[2\baselineskip]
    \textbf{\today} \\[2\baselineskip]
    Word Count: {\color{red}xxxxx}
  \end{titlepage}
\end{document}

[mas]

I have a suggestion. Rather than use \vspace{n\baselineskip}, you can try \vfill so that the space is stretchable.


Oops: Noticed that it has already been suggested

Regards.

[jannetta]

The \maketitle appears to have been the culprit. I removed it and the extra date on the second page disappeared. Thanks for pointing that out. I have also changed to isodate. Although the documentation indicates that \usepackage[england]{isodate} should produce the date that I want, ie 22 December 2008, it didn't. It produced 22nd December 2008. So I tried \usepackage[newzealand]{isodate} and that gave me the date I wanted. Just wondering why the england one is different to what the doc says it should be.


Thank you so much to all who have been helping. I truly wish that I discovered these forums sooner. I can't tell you guys how much time I have wasted searching and trying things out that didn't work!!

Kind Regards
Jannetta

[localghost]

The \maketitle appears to have been the culprit. I removed it and the extra date on the second page disappeared. Thanks for pointing that out. I have also changed to isodate. Although the documentation indicates that \usepackage[england]{isodate} should produce the date that I want, ie 22 December 2008, it didn't. It produced 22nd December 2008. So I tried \usepackage[newzealand]{isodate} and that gave me the date I wanted. Just wondering why the england one is different to what the doc says it should be.

As I stated in my last reply, the representation of the date has changed to the "clean look" format. A suitable option for the isodate package makes it appear as desired (see code above).

Code: Select all

\usepackage[cleanlook]{isodate}

For further information refer to the manual of this package (Section 1.8 - Changing the english format, p. 5). Take also a closer look at the code I provided earlier.