General ⇒ What variable current section name?

[dmader]

Hi,

I want to display the name of the section (also chapter, subsection) I'm currently in. (Section number doesn't do)

For instance:

\begin{document}
\section{asdf}
This is text in the section: ??? % and here I need something to display "asdf" without explicitly typing it)
\end{document}

Thanks a lot,
Daniel

[stantestco]

I've spent countless hours trying to figure this out-- native Latex support is very lacking in this regard.

Here is what I did. Make a variable that stores the current section title.

ie


\definecommand{sectiontitle}{#1}
\definecommand{setsectiontitle}[1]{\renewcommand{sectiontitle}{#1}}

and use \sectiontitle inside the section...

Trust me on this-- I know exactly what you're trying to do, after investing literally 20 or so hours into this,


\section{Quadratic Equations}
\setsectiontitle{Quadratic Equations}
{

...
}

[frabjous]

\section{Quadratic Equations}
\setsectiontitle{Quadratic Equations}

Wouldn't have been easier just to define a command like this:

\newcommand{\sectiontitle}{}
\newcommand{\newsection}[1]{\section{#1}\renewcommand{\sectiontitle}{#1}}

So that in the document you only need to do:

\newsection{Quadratic Equations}

which will both start the new section and redefine \sectiontitle?

But I think there should be a way to get around even doing that, but I think we'd need to know what document class and other packages were being used.

[dmader]

Thank you for the fast replies.

@frabjous: Documentclass is report and I can integrate all packages needed if it facilitates the solution.

[prosper]

frabjous,

this solved my problem. I could even easily extend the functionality to subsectiontitles ...

I don't quite grasp the exact syntax of the commands you gave, but I encountered those while searching on "\sectionmark" which was the closest I got to a "solution" after literally hours of searching. Everything I encountered was about headers and so on, but I didn't want some "fancy headers", just a title on my slides in the "beamer class" that would change automatically if I ever wanted to change the name of the section. It now also provides easier processing, since I can use the same lines over and over again.

Thanks a lot.

Prosper

[prosper]

In fact, some rather odd problem remains:
When I use this snippet of code

Code: Select all

\AtBeginSection[]
{
   \begin{frame}
       \frametitle{\sectiontitle}  
       \tableofcontents[currentsection,hideothersubsections,]
   \end{frame}
}

LateX will not print the title of the new session that is about to begin, but rather the title of the previous session. "Current" session being highlighted is the upcoming session, as was intended.

Placing everything inside the brackets manually AFTER each session-start gives the intended result: correct sessiontitle and correct highlighted "upcoming" session.
Though this suits my needs, it is rather cumbersome...

BTW: document class is Beamer

[frabjous]

Are you using this code snippet now?

Code: Select all

\newcommand{\sectiontitle}{}
\newcommand{\newsection}[1]{\section{#1}\renewcommand{\sectiontitle}{#1}}

?

If so, did you try changing it to:

Code: Select all

\newcommand{\sectiontitle}{}
\newcommand{\newsection}[1]{\renewcommand{\sectiontitle}{#1}\section{#1}}

[nlct]

I want to display the name of the section (also chapter, subsection) I'm currently in. (Section number doesn't do)

The nameref package will do this (but you need to label the section):

Code: Select all

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{nameref}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Sample}

\section{asdf}\label{sec:ex}
This is text in the section: \nameref{sec:ex}.
\end{document}

With beamer, the current section title is given by \insertsectionhead:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{beamer}

\AtBeginSection[]
{
   \begin{frame}
       \frametitle{\insertsectionhead}
       \tableofcontents[currentsection,hideothersubsections,]
   \end{frame}
}

\begin{document}

\section{asdf}

\begin{frame}
 \frametitle{Sample}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Regards
Nicola Talbot