[Tex/LaTex] LyX: modify thesis.cls preamble

lyxpreamblethesis

I'm using LyX and a custom class from Colorado-Boulder which is based on the thesis class. I'm at another school and my advisor wants me to include titles of the readers on the signature page as well as a date line for each signator. I've looked through some documentation on the thesis class and poked around in the .cls file in use but didn't come across anything obvious to change. Perhaps this section would help though?

\newcommand*{\th@degreeyear}{\number\the\year}
\newcommand*{\th@signature}[1]{ \begin{center}
    \normalsize
    \vspace*{16mm}  % works well?
    \vrule width 80mm height 0.2mm\\
    #1 \end{center}
}
\newcommand*{\th@dateline}{
\vspace*{9mm}
\begin{flushright}
    Date~{\vrule width 35mm height 0.2mm}
\end{flushright}

How do I include this?

Best Answer

  • If you would like to change existing macros of a class file, you can use \renewcommand to redefine them.

  • If you see the character @ in the code, i.e. in macro names, use need to use \makeatletter before and \makeatother after. See why: What do \makeatletter and \makeatother do.

  • In LyX, use the menu and go to document settings, to modify the document preamble. Insert the lines for redefinition there. These may now look like

    \makeatletter
    \renewcommand*{\th@signature}[1]{%
      \begin{center}
      ...
      \end{center}%
    }
    \makeatother
    

An explanation for the star * is given here: What's the difference between \newcommand and \newcommand*. And for the percent signs: What is the use of percent signs at the end of lines.

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