[Tex/LaTex] Fancyhdr header: chapter name when there is no section

fancyhdrheader-footer

I have a problem with fancyhdr. My header shows on odd pages the chapter name, and on even pages the section name. However, I have a unnumbered chapter with no sections (the conclusions), and in that case the even page header shows the name of the last section from the previous chapter. This is an example of what I have

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside,openright]{report}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\fancypagestyle{mypagestyle}{
\fancyhf{}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.5pt}

\fancyhead[EL]{\small \textsl{\nouppercase{\rightmark}}}
\fancyhead[OR]{\small \textsl{\nouppercase{\leftmark}}}
\fancyhead[OL,ER]{\small \textsl \thepage}
}

\pagestyle{mypagestyle}

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{ \markboth{#1}{} }
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{ \markright{#1}{} }

\begin{document}
\chapter{First chapter}
\section{First section}
\lipsum

\chapter*{Second chapter}
\lipsum

\chapter{Third chapter}
\lipsum
\end{document}

As you can see, this is a problem only with the unnumbered chapter, while for the numbered chapter with no sections nothing is shown instead of the section name.

What I would like to have in general would be the name of the chapter instead of the name of the section, when my chapter does not have sections. Any ideas?

Best Answer

First of all, if you want the header in numbered chapters, you have to change

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{ \markboth{#1}{} }

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{ \markboth{#1}{#1} }

Then, since unnumbered chapters don't issue any \chaptermark command, you have to manually insert

\markboth{Second chapter}{Second chapter}

just after your unnumbered chapter.

MWE:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,twoside,openright]{report}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\fancypagestyle{mypagestyle}{
\fancyhf{}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.5pt}

\fancyhead[EL]{\small \textsl{\nouppercase{\rightmark}}}
\fancyhead[OR]{\small \textsl{\nouppercase{\leftmark}}}
\fancyhead[OL,ER]{\small \textsl \thepage}
}

\pagestyle{mypagestyle}

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{ \markboth{#1}{#1} }
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{ \markright{#1}{} }

\begin{document}
\chapter{First chapter}
\section{First section}
\lipsum[1-30]

\chapter*{Second chapter}
\markboth{Second chapter}{Second chapter}
\lipsum[1-30]

\chapter{Third chapter}
\lipsum[1-30]
\end{document}

Output (unnumbered chapter)

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter-specific headers using fancyhdr

The style is applied to the current page. So you need to clear the page first. This is done by \clearpage (end current page) or \cleardoublepage(clear current page and optionally add a blank page so that the next page with content is an odd page), depending on whether your chapters can start on any page or always start on an odd page.

[Tex/LaTex] Header not displaying correctly on chapter page due to subsection

We must give more structure to the right mark emitted by the \chapter command; so we do

\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{%
  \markboth{\chaptername\ \thechapter}
           {\noexpand\firstsubsectiontitle}}

The \subsectiontitle macro will be defined by the \subsection command; of course it won't work if no subsection starts in the first page:

\renewcommand{\subsectionmark}[1]{%
  \markright{#1}\gdef\firstsubsectiontitle{#1}}

Here's an example; notice some changes I've made to your code. For instance I've redefined the \sectionmark command so it doesn't emit any mark.

The solution to the numbering problem of subsection is to \setcounter{secnumdepth}{1}.

\documentclass{report}

% PACKAGES
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lastpage} % Allows referencing of the last page to allow footer to read: "Page [Current page] of [Total number of pages]."
\usepackage{comment} % Allows comments of the type: \begin{comment}This text is commented out.\end{comment}
%\usepackage[colorlinks=true]{hyperref} % Turns table of contents and labels into clickable links. Commented out to speed up compiling.
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % Allows use of ">" symbol.
\usepackage{lmodern} %Not really sure what this is for.

% FORMATTING
% Header and Footer
\pagestyle{fancy}

% Allows calling chapter and section names in headers and footers.
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{%
  \markboth{\chaptername\ \thechapter}
  {\noexpand\firstsubsectiontitle}}
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{}
\renewcommand{\subsectionmark}[1]{%
  \markright{#1}\gdef\firstsubsectiontitle{#1}}
\newcommand\firstsubsectiontitle{}

% General Header and Footer
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[L]{\DocumentAuthor} 
\fancyhead[R]{\BookAuthor>\leftmark>\rightmark}
\fancyfoot[C]{Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}

% Chapter Header and Footer
\fancypagestyle{plain}{%
  \fancyhf{} \fancyhead[L]{\DocumentAuthor}%
  \fancyhead[R]{\BookAuthor>\leftmark>\rightmark}%
  \fancyfoot[C]{Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}%
}

% Header/Footer Separation-line Width
\renewcommand\headrulewidth{0.4pt} 
\renewcommand\footrulewidth{0.4pt}

\setlength\parindent{0pt} % Remove paragraph indentation.

% NAME AND CLASS SECTION
\newcommand{\DocumentAuthor}{Author Name}
\newcommand{\BookAuthor}{Book Author}

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{1}

%DOCUMENT
\begin{document}

\tableofcontents
\thispagestyle{empty}

\chapter{Title of Chapter 1}
\section{Sample Problems}
\subsection{Title of Subsection 1}
\pagebreak{}
\subsection{Title of Subsection 2}
\subsection{Title of Subsection 3}
\pagebreak{}
\subsection{Title of Subsection 4}

\end{document}

With this code the first subsection in the page will be put in the header.

What's \noexpand\firstsubsectiontitle doing? The \markboth and \markright commands must record the current values of the counters and titles, so their arguments are passed through an \edef; this, in the case of the first chapter and English language, would set a left mark with value Chapter\ 1. If we said only \firstsubsectiontitle in the second argument, it would be expanded leaving a wrong right mark because it would be empty for the first chapter and would contain the last subsection in the preceding chapter!

So we say "dear TeX, don't expand \firstsubsectiontitle right now, but only when you'll set the header."

Actually, if there can be more than one subsection in the chapter pages, a different solution should be used:

% Allows calling chapter and section names in headers and footers.
\renewcommand{\chaptermark}[1]{%
  \markboth{\chaptername\ \thechapter}
           {\noexpand\firstsubsectiontitle}%
  \global\firstsubsectionmarktrue}
\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{}
\renewcommand{\subsectionmark}[1]{%
  \markright{#1}%
  \iffirstsubsectionmark
    \gdef\firstsubsectiontitle{#1}%
  \fi
  \global\firstsubsectionmarkfalse}
\newif\iffirstsubsectionmark
\def\firstsubsectiontitle{}

so that the first subsection would set the mark.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter-specific headers using fancyhdr

[Tex/LaTex] Header not displaying correctly on chapter page due to subsection

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