numberingsectioning
I am currently doing this:
\chapter{A Chapter}
\renewcommand\thesection{\Roman{section}}
But it affects ALL following chapters. I want to change the style of only this particular chapter. Is there a way to do that? Or do I need to manually change back the next chapter?
If you change the document class from article to book or report, your document works without error. The code in your question uses the \chapter command which is undefined in the article class. Try:
\documentclass{book}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{mwe}
\section{unnumbered subsections}
\subsection{unnumbered}
\section{roman numbered subsections}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{2}
\renewcommand{\thesubsection}{\textnormal{\roman{subsection}}.}
\subsection{roman one}
\subsection{roman two}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}
\chapter{Second chapter}
\section{unnumbered subsections}
\subsection{unnumbered}
\end{document}
Sometimes it's good to use \addtocounter instead of \setcounter, so you could raise or lower the numbering level without using the absolute value.
Also, as you can see, I used the counter value -1 for not numbering chapters, instead of 0.
In general, I think it's a bit inconsistent to change the numbering depth within a document.
The following solution does not support hyperref since it re-uses counters associated with supplemental tables (or figures).
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{titlesec}% http://ctan.org/pkg/titlesec
\newcounter{mytable}\newcounter{myfigure}
\titleformat{\section}% <command>
[hang]% <shape>
{\setcounter{mytable}{\value{table}}\setcounter{myfigure}{\value{figure}}% Store table/figure counters
\setcounter{table}{0}\global\def\thetable{S\arabic{table}}%
\setcounter{figure}{0}\global\def\thefigure{S\arabic{figure}}%
\normalfont\Large\bfseries}% <format>
{\setcounter{table}{\value{mytable}}\setcounter{figure}{\value{myfigure}}% Restore table/figure counters
\global\def\thetable{\arabic{table}}%
\global\def\thefigure{\arabic{figure}}%
\thesection}% <label>
{2.3ex plus.2ex}% <sep>
{}% <before code>
%[]% <after code>
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\listoftables
\section{Start}
Start text
\section{Middle}
Middle text
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering STUFF
\caption{A normal table}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering STUFF
\caption{A normal table}
\end{table}
\section*{Supplemental}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
\caption{A supplemental table}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
\caption{A supplemental table}
\end{table}
\section{Last}
End text
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering STUFF
\caption{A normal table}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering STUFF
\caption{A normal table}
\end{table}
\section*{Supplemental}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
\caption{A supplemental table}
\end{table}
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
\caption{A supplemental table}
\end{table}
\end{document}
I've used titlesec to hook into the sectional unit \section that conditionally executes certain parts of typesetting the heading (the settings are kept similar to the original article formatting). The label and separator part of the heading is only called when using \section, and therefore not "called" or used in \section*.
The concept is based on storing the current value of the table (and figure) counter in mytable (myfigure), after which it is set to 0. Then, only if you're using \section its value is restored. At both instances the display of the counter is renewed to prepend S or not.
Best Answer
Quick workaround: use your redefinition inside a group