chapterssectioningspacingtitlesec
I am sorry if this is a repeated question, I could not find anything similar on the forum search.
How to adjust the space before the chapter heading without using titlesec package.
I tried this code but no luck:
\renewcommand*{\chapterheadstartvskip}{\vspace*{-\topskip}}
It says that \chapterheadstartvskip is not defined.
If you want to look further than just a "hook" before the chaper title look at the examples of Vincent Zoonekynd for the normal book class. Lars Madsen has compiled some nice examples for memoir: MemoirChapStyles. There is even one with TikZ by Stefan Kottwitz onTeXblog
Without using titlesec, you can redefine the \@makechapterhead command (defined in book.cls) which actually typesets the chapter title; you could do something along these lines:
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newcommand\toptitle{}
\makeatletter
\def\@makechapterhead#1{%
\vspace*{50\p@}%
{\parindent \z@ \raggedright \normalfont
\ifnum \c@secnumdepth >\m@ne
\if@mainmatter
\toptitle\par
\huge\bfseries \@chapapp\space \thechapter
\par\nobreak
\vskip 20\p@
\fi
\fi
\interlinepenalty\@M
\Huge \bfseries #1\par\nobreak
\vskip 40\p@
}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\renewcommand\toptitle{{\itshape Quantum Mechanics\hfill 15.10.2011}}
\chapter{Test chapter}
\lipsum
\end{document}
Using the etoolbox package, the above redefinition can be done in a shorter way:
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newcommand\toptitle{}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd{\@makechapterhead}{\if@mainmatter}{\if@mainmatter\toptitle\par}{}{}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\renewcommand\toptitle{{\itshape Quantum Mechanics\hfill 15.10.2011}}
\chapter{Test chapter}
\lipsum
\end{document}
Best Answer
You didn't give the documentclass you are using. So I will let loose my guess that it is
book. Here the default space above is defined by\vspace*{50\p@}. This can be patched as in this code:Adjust
20in\vspace*{20\p@}as you wish.