[Tex/LaTex] Quoting styles, technical an appreciation questions

quotingshading

I know there has been some questions about the quote style, I loved the one with the big quote marks. What I'm trying to achieve it's a little simpler.

Right now I have something like this:

\documentclass[11pt]{report}

\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{color}

\newenvironment{shadequote}%
{\begin{snugshade}\begin{quote}}
{\hfill\end{quote}\end{snugshade}}


\definecolor{shadecolor}{rgb}{0.9,0.9,0.9}

\begin{document}
Text before. Text before. Text before. Text before.
Text before. Text before. Text before. Text before.
Text before. Text before. Text before. 

\begin{shadequote}
Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way
that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its
internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes
the chances of introducing bugs. In essence when you refactor you are improving
the design of the code after it has been written.
\end{shadequote}

Text after Text After Text after Text After Text after
Text After Text after Text After Text after Text After
Text after Text After Text after 
\end{document}

which does something like this:

enter image description here

Now, what I want to acomplish is this:

enter image description here

where the shading affects the text of the quote only.

Finally, I like the beamer output for quotes:
enter image description here

But I've tried to change the quote with \itshape but it looks like crap, does beamer change font of quoted text?.

So, now the questions, first the technical question:

1. How can I acomplish the result shown on the second picture? (the shading affecting only the text part). Extra bonus: idem, but with the beamer look-n-feel The ideal answer would use the quote environment in order not to lose all its properties (like spaces, identation, etc.)

The appreciation question:

I know LaTeX do things for a good reason, sometimes I don't like it but then I realize I was wrong (the latest example is that when you put the twoside option, the right pages has more margin on the right side, at first I thought it should be the other way round), so, though it is a personal and subjective question, I want to know what you think:

2. Is it ok what I'm trying to achive? Should the shading affect only the text part or it's better in the first picture?

Of course, anything you may add or personal opinions are welcome

Best Answer

Here is a version using the mdframed package. The first image below uses shadequote and the second image below uses the mdframed environment.

enter image description here

Code:

\documentclass[11pt]{report}
\usepackage{mdframed}
\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\mdfdefinestyle{MyShadeQuoteStyle}{%
    leftmargin=15pt,
    rightmargin=15pt,
    backgroundcolor=gray!25,
    linewidth=0pt,
    skipbelow=\topskip,
    skipabove=\topskip
}

\newenvironment{MyShadequote}[1][]{%
    \ignorespaces%
    \begin{mdframed}[style=MyShadeQuoteStyle,#1]%
}{%
    \end{mdframed}%
    \ignorespacesafterend%
}%


\newenvironment{shadequote}%
{\begin{snugshade}\begin{quote}}
{\hfill\end{quote}\end{snugshade}}


\definecolor{shadecolor}{rgb}{0.9,0.9,0.9}

\begin{document}
Text before. Text before. Text before. Text before.
Text before. Text before. Text before. Text before.
Text before. Text before. Text before. 

\begin{shadequote}
shadequote: Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way
that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its
internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes
the chances of introducing bugs. In essence when you refactor you are improving
the design of the code after it has been written.
\end{shadequote}

Text after Text After Text after Text After Text after
Text After Text after Text After Text after Text After
Text after Text After Text after 

\begin{MyShadequote}
mdframed: Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way
that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its
internal structure. It is a disciplined way to clean up code that minimizes
the chances of introducing bugs. In essence when you refactor you are improving
the design of the code after it has been written.
\end{MyShadequote}

Text after Text After Text after Text After Text after
Text After Text after Text After Text after Text After
Text after Text After Text after 
\end{document}

Basic Solution:

I would recommend that you use the mdframed package instead (as it will work across page breaks), and use the resume* option with lists via the enumitem package:

enter image description here

Better Solution:

As @MarcoDaniel suggested, a better looking solution is to use the frametitle option with mdframed.

\newenvironment{Question}[1]{
    \begin{mdframed}[
       frametitle={#1},
       frametitlerule=true,
       frametitlebackgroundcolor=red!20,
       frametitlebelowskip=2pt,
       innerlinewidth=1.0pt
    ]
}{
    \end{mdframed}
}

With this you simply enclose the part you wanted shaded in the first parameter to the Question environment, and the body of this environment is the answer, i.e., the part you don't wanted shaded. This yields:

enter image description here

For some reason there is a display issue with this. There are lines at the top and bottom but with increasing magnification from 150% and incrementing by 1% with Acrobat Reader 10.1.2 on Mac different lines appear and disappear. I have updated this to use framemthod=tikz and innerlinewidth=1.0pt option as this make this display problem less noticeable (but problem is still there).

Even Better Solution (Custom Counter):

If you are only using the enumerate to create a numbered list, you could simplify things even further by using a custom counter. This is also courtesy of @MarcoDaniel.

enter image description here

Notes:

If you are not already using enumitem, you should have a look at:

What are the differences between using paralist vs. enumitem

Suggestions for transitioning from paralist to enumitem package
If you happen to be using this within minipages, please do make a note of Resuming a list started within a minipage
To adjust the settings of enumitem, refer to Can't get my head around enumitem's spacing parameters

Code: Basic Solution

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{mdframed}

\newmdenv[backgroundcolor=yellow]{shaded}

\begin{document}
\begin{shaded}
    Starting text...
    \begin{enumerate}[series=MyQuestions,leftmargin=*]
    \item This is the first problem.
    \end{enumerate}
\end{shaded}
\begin{enumerate}[resume*=MyQuestions]
\item[] This is the first solution (not shaded)
\end{enumerate}
%
\begin{shaded}
    \begin{enumerate}[resume*=MyQuestions]
    \item This is the second problem.
    \end{enumerate}
\end{shaded}
\begin{enumerate}[resume*=MyQuestions]
\item[] Second solution (not shaded)
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

Code: Better Solution:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[framemethod=tikz]{mdframed}

\newenvironment{Question}[1]{
    \begin{mdframed}[
        frametitle={#1},
        frametitlerule=true,
        frametitlebackgroundcolor=red!20,
        frametitlebelowskip=2pt,
        innerlinewidth=1.0pt
    ]
}{
    \end{mdframed}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{Question}{
        Starting text...
        \begin{enumerate}[series=MyQuestions,leftmargin=*]
        \item This is the first problem.
        \end{enumerate}
    }
    This is the first solution (not shaded)
\end{Question}

\bigskip
\begin{Question}{
        \begin{enumerate}[resume*=MyQuestions]
        \item This is the second problem.
        \end{enumerate}
    }
    \begin{enumerate}[resume*=MyQuestions]
    \item[] Second solution (not shaded)
    \end{enumerate}
\end{Question}
\end{document}

Code: Even Better Solution (Custom Counter):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mdframed}
\mdfdefinestyle{QuestionsStyle}{%
    frametitlerule=true,
    frametitlebackgroundcolor=yellow,
    linewidth=2pt,
    frametitlerulewidth=1pt,
    innerleftmargin=30pt,
    frametitlebelowskip=.5\topskip,
    innertopmargin=\topskip
}
\newcounter{QuestionCounter}
\setcounter{QuestionCounter}{0}
\newrobustcmd*\SetQuestionNum{\mbox{}\llap{\stepcounter{QuestionCounter}\theQuestionCounter\hspace*{10pt}}}
\newmdenv[style=QuestionsStyle]{Question}
\begin{document}
\begin{Question}[frametitle={
    Some Text\\
    \\
    \SetQuestionNum This is the first problem.}]
This is the first solution (not shaded)
\end{Question}

\bigskip
\begin{Question}[frametitle={
    \SetQuestionNum This is the second problem.}]
Second solution (not shaded)
\end{Question}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] how can I shade an area in a beamer frame

You ask for two different things:

1. Changing all the used (content) colors in a certain area to gray

For all code and packages that rely on xcolor to produce colored output, you can use \selectcolor{gray} in a group (i. e. wrapped in curly braces). Make sure to also issue \color{black} at the beginning of the group so that previous color changes are reverted. At the end of that group, the old color model will be restored automatically so that you're able to produce colorful output again:

\documentclass{beamer}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\color{red} This is red text with {\color{blue} blue}, but {\selectcolormodel{gray}\color{black} from now on {\color{blue} all} \color{green} is grey.} Now it's colourful (red) again!
\end{frame}
\end{document}

output of the example code, showing how to change the content color of a certain area to gray

Note that this won't work for packages which have some color management of their own, e.g. directly setting the respective PDF properties.

2. Changing the background color of a certain area to white

This can be done in a number of ways, the easiest of which is probably wrapping the content of the area in a beamercolorbox:

\documentclass{beamer}
\setbeamercolor{normal text}{bg=gray!40}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\setbeamercolor{whitebox}{bg=white}
\begin{beamercolorbox}[sep=2mm]{whitebox}
    This text is in a box with white backgound.
\end{beamercolorbox}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

output of the example code: a text in a white box

The size of the box can be controlled with the optional argument of beamercolorbox - in the example, a margin of 2mm is added to each side.

Best Answer

Code:

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Shaded continuous across new enumerate environment

Basic Solution:

Better Solution:

Even Better Solution (Custom Counter):

Notes:

Code: Basic Solution

Code: Better Solution:

Code: Even Better Solution (Custom Counter):

[Tex/LaTex] how can I shade an area in a beamer frame

1. Changing all the used (content) colors in a certain area to gray

2. Changing the background color of a certain area to white

Related Question