Formatting

It used to be that in order to change the format of chapter and section

headings, you needed to have some understanding of the internal workings
of classes such as report or book. Modern classes, such as memoir and
the KOMA-Script classes, provide a much easier interface. However, I recommend
that you first write your thesis, and then worry about changing
the document style. The ability to separate content from style is one of the
advantages of using LATEX over a word processor. Remember that writing
your thesis is more important than the layout. Whilst it may be that
your school or department insists on a certain style, it should not take
precedence over the actual task of writing.
4.1 Changing the Document Style
If you are using a custom thesis class file provided by your department or
school, then you should stick to the styles set up in that class. If not, you
may need to change the default style of your chosen class to fit the re-
Previous Next First Last Back Forward Summary Index 41
quirements. Volume 1 [15, §5.3] described how to change the fonts used by
chapter and section headings for the KOMA-Script classes. For example,
if the chapter headings must be set in a large, bold, serif font you can do:
\addtokomafont{\large\bfseries\rmfamily} Input
The headings in the KOMA-Script classes default to ragged-right justification
(recall \raggedright from §2.12 of Volume 1) which is done via
\raggedsection Definition
This can be redefined as required. For example, suppose you are required
to have centred headings, then you can do:
\renewcommand*{\raggedsection}{\centering} Input
4.2 Changing the Page Style
Volume 1 [15, §5.7] described the command
\pagestyle{⟨style⟩} Definition
4 Formatting
Previous Next First Last Back Forward Summary Index 42
which can be used to set the page style. The scrbook class defaults to
the headings page style, but if this isn’t appropriate, you can use the scrpage2
package, which comes with the KOMA-Script bundle. This package
provides its own versions of the plain and headings page styles, called
scrplain and scrheadings.
For simplicity, I’m assuming that your thesis is a one-sided document.
If this isn’t the case and your odd and even page styles need to be different,
you’ll need to consult the KOMA-Script documentation [8].
With the scrheadings page style, the page header and footer are both
divided into three areas (Figure 4.1): the inner (left) head/foot, the centre
head/foot and the outer (right) head/foot.
These elements can be set using:
\ihead[⟨scrplain inner head⟩]{⟨scrheadings inner head⟩}
\chead[⟨scrplain centre head⟩]{⟨scrheadings centre head⟩}
\ohead[⟨scrplain outer head⟩]{⟨scrheadings outer head⟩}
\ifoot[⟨scrplain inner foot⟩]{⟨scrheadings inner foot⟩}
\cfoot[⟨scrplain centre foot⟩]{⟨scrheadings centre foot⟩}
\ofoot[⟨scrplain outer foot⟩]{⟨scrheadings outer foot⟩}
Definition
In each case, the optional argument indicates what to do if the scrplain
page style is in use and the mandatory argument indicates what to do if the
4 Formatting
Previous Next First Last Back Forward Summary Index 43
ihead chead ohead
ifoot cfoot ofoot
Figure 4.1 Page Header and Footer Elements