Pagestyle – Changing Page Number in Pagestyle{myheadings} for Custom Headers

pagestyle

I am working with a .sty file, that defines a myheadings style like this:

\pagestyle{myheadings}
            \markboth{}{header part 1~header part 2~\textendash~header part 3}

The pagestyle inserts a page number right of the header. I now would like to change the number from a plain number X to X of N. The other answers how to change the page numbers seem to define them in \cfoot, what doesn't match the myheadings style but only works with page numbers inside the footer.

I guess there is a simple command that that needs to be renewed such that the pagestyle automatically uses the correct format, but I cannot find which one.

Best Answer

Without additional packages (except lastpage to capture the last page number):

\documentclass[12pt, openany]{book} 

\usepackage{lastpage}% for last page

\pagestyle{myheadings}
\markboth{}{header part 1~header part 2~\textendash~header part 3}

\makeatletter
\def \@evenhead {\thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage} \hfil \slshape \leftmark } % added <<<<
\def \@oddhead {{\slshape \rightmark }\hfil \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}} % added <<<<
\makeatother

\usepackage{kantlipsum}% only for dummy text
\begin{document}
    
    \kant[1-15]
    
 \end{document}

The popular package fancyhdr offers more versatility to control the headers and footers.

\documentclass[12pt, openany]{book} 

\usepackage{lastpage}% for last page

\usepackage{fancyhdr}% added <<<<<<<<
\fancyhf{} % clear header and footer
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}% suppress line after header
\fancyhead[LO]{\slshape header part 1~header part 2~\textendash~header part 3}% Left Odd pages
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}} % Left Even and Right Odd pages 

\pagestyle{fancy} % choose the style

\usepackage{kantlipsum}% only for dummy text
\begin{document}
    
    \kant[1-15]
    
\end{document}

Related Solutions

koma-script – How to Solve Page Numbering Issues with Letter Page Style in scrletter

The class scrletter is an undocumented wrapper-class. It loads class scrartcl with font size 12pt and package scrletter.

\pagemark is already defined by the KOMA-Script scrartcl. Therefore package scrletter defines \letterpagemark for the letters in the document. If the format of the page numbers in the letters should be the same as in the other part of the document, use

\let\letterpagemark\pagemark

before environment letter.

\documentclass[
  %12pt,% default
  headheight=30pt,headinclude,
  firsthead=false,firstfoot=false,
  foldmarks=false,
  %foldmarks=blmtP,% disabled by foldmarks=false
  %fromalign=center,% disabled by firsthead=false
  %fromphone,fromemail,% disabled by firsthead=false
  %version=last,
  backaddress=false,
  subject=titled,
  twoside=semi,
  cleardoublepage=current
]{scrletter}
%\usepackage{scrlayer-scrpage}% load by package scrletter 
\usepackage{lipsum}% only for dummy text
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\clearpairofpagestyles
\ohead{\jobname.tex\hspace{0.5cm}\usekomavar{date}}
\cfoot{\pagemark}
\renewcommand*{\pagemark}{{\usekomafont{pagenumber}{\thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}}}
\let\letterpagemark\pagemark
\AddToHook{shipout/lastpage}{\label{LastPage}}% replaces package lastpage

\renewcommand*{\letterpagestyle}{scrheadings}% page style for the next pages of the letter
\AddToHook{cmd/opening/after}{\thispagestyle{\letterpagestyle}}% use the same page style on first letter page

\setkomavar{date}{19th February, 2022}% do not change \today

\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Name}
  \opening{Dear Name,}
  \thispagestyle{scrheadings}
  \lipsum
\end{letter}
\lipsum
\end{document}

Note:

\renewcommand*{\letterpagestyle}{scrheadings}% page style for the next pages of the letter
\AddToHook{cmd/opening/after}{\thispagestyle{\letterpagestyle}}% use the same page style on first letter page

can be replaced by

\renewcommand*\letterpagestyle{}% do not change the page style for the letter
\AddToHook{cmd/opening/after}{\thispagestyle{scrheadings}}% use scrheadings on first letter page

The result would be the same.

fancyhdr – Automatically Switching Back to Default Plain Page Style in LaTeX

I believe there are two misunderstandings causing you to be confused.

Why is does the page style change when there are several pages?

It is a common typographical convention not to use headers on pages where a chapter starts. This let's the chapter heading be the first thing on the page without capping it with a header (that would usually just contain the chapter heading again).

In order to accommodate for this, LaTeX has the command \thispagestyle which changes the page style for this page only, i.e. it will reset to the default before the next page (as opposed to \pagestyle which changes the page style globally). By default, when you use \chapter, somewhere in the code there is a \thispagestyle{plain} that sets the page style for the page where the chapter starts to plain.

By default, the plain style has the page number in the footer and nothing in the header (this is also the default page style for the whole document). You changed that using fancyhdr which is why you see your custom style on the chapter heading page.

So why does my page style not work on the rest of the document? I changed the default, didn't I?

and here's the second misunderstanding. What \pagestyle{plain} does is not actually telling LaTeX "use the page style plain from now on". Instead, it says "from now on, put the page number in the footer and nothing in the header". That is, it sets the style according to plain, the fact that these settings came from plain is immediately forgotten.

Because of this, just changing the definition of a page style will never take effect in your document, even if you have activated it previously using \pagestyle. It only takes effect when you activate it again. In your example, this is done for the first page by \chapter (using \thispagestyle{plain}) but not for any other pages. That is why the default definitions are still in effect for those pages.

What all this means is that all you have to do to get what you expect is say

\pagestyle{plain}

after your \fancypagestyle definition. This will activate the settings you just defined and make them the document default.