Page Layout ⇒ Spacing in a table of contents with many sections

[mgmillani]

In a document with more than 9 chapters or sections, the section number in the table of contents overlaps its title (see attached file).

Since I'm writing a .cls file to implement a given standard, I have to rewrite commands like \l@section and \@dottedtocline. This makes using packages like tocstyle a bit more complicated.

My idea to solve the problem was to get the width of the longest number and use it for every entry, for example:

Code: Select all

Code, edit and compile here:

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\renewcommand*{\l@section}[2]{  
  \begingroup\bfseries
  \settowidth{\seclen}{<width of longest section number>}
  \@dottedtocline{1}{0em}{\seclen}{\textbf{#1}}{\textbf{#2}}
  \endgroup%
}
 
 
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The problem is, have no idea how to get the current section number (#1 includes the title), nor how to compute the largest value in (La)TeX.

I could set \seclen to a larger value, but then the spacing on most cases (where there are less than 10 chapters/sections) would be way too large.

I tried to find where \l@section is called so that I could send the section number as parameter to it, but I couldn't find it.

Any help is much appreciated.

[Johannes_B]

Package tocstyle would have been my first suggestion, why can't you use it?

[mgmillani]

Well, I tried to use tocstyle early, but I was getting "Undefined control sequence" when including the package for some reason. But I guess it was related with something on the .aux files, since it works now.

The only problem that I now have is that I can no longer redefine \l@section, since tocstyle overwrites it after the beginning of the document. All I needed was the section title to be in bold face in the TOC. Strangely, I had no problem redefining \l@chapter.

I'm using tocstyle with the options [tocindentauto,tocfullflat].

[Stefan Kottwitz]

You still could place your redefinitions after \begin{document} yourself. Which would mean, in this example, simply moving the line \begin{document} above \renewcommand*{\l@chapter}... There are macros to do the same, but this way it works easily without loading a package and having a headache what may come first.

Stefan

[mgmillani]

Adding

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Code, edit and compile here:

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\renewcommand*{\l@section}[2]{  
  \begingroup\bfseries
  \@dottedtocline{1}{0em}{\seclen}{\textbf{#1}}{\textbf{#2}}
  \endgroup%
}
 
 
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after \begin{document} yields the following error:

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Illegal parameter number in definition of \reserved@a.
<to be read again> 
                   1
l.168   \@dottedtocline{1}{0em}{\seclen}{\textbf{#1}
                                                  }{\textbf{#2}}
 
 
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Since I'm writing a .cls file, telling the users to put this code after \begin{document} wouldn't be an option. Using \AtBeginDocument was also useless.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Adding ... yields the following error ...

You just forgot to use \makeatletter ... \makeatother.

Since I'm writing a .cls file, telling the users to put this code after \begin{document} wouldn't be an option.

Sure, but if necessary it could be put into a separate file such as body_settings.tex and the user should place \input{body_settings.tex} after \begin{document}. Such a way could still avoid telling internals.

Using \AtBeginDocument was also useless.

Without minimal example, it did not happen.

Stefan

[mgmillani]

You just forgot to use \makeatletter ... \makeatother.

Indeed, there are no more errors. But it was also useless (nothing changes).

Sure, but if necessary it could be put into a separate file such as body_settings.tex and the user should place \input{body_settings.tex} after \begin{document}. Such a way could still avoid telling internals.

I guess \renewenvironment{document} would also work, so yeah, that won't be a problem.

In the attached file the \AtBeginDocument part was commented out.

[mgmillani]

I changed the tocstyle.sty file so that it wouldn't overwirte any \l@something at the beginning of the document. Now everything works like a charm!

Thanks for the help!

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Nice to see that you could make it work!

Just a comment: I would not change a .sty file. Either I would use \renewcommand to modify its macros, or if it's a big change I would copy the file, rename it, and change it then. With the same name there could be a problem with other files using that .sty file, or with your document on another computer.

Stefan

[Johannes_B]

Hey guys, why so complicated? Package tocstyle is designed to give hooks for every possible location, to get the user the possibility to hack in some stuff. Look at the following

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\documentclass{report}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{5}
\usepackage[tocflat]{tocstyle}
\settocstylefeature[0]{entryhook}{\bfseries}
\settocstylefeature[1]{entryhook}{\bfseries}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{F}
\section{S}
\subsection{SS}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\chapter{C}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\section{S}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
\subsubsection{SS}
 
 
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