[texhax] change some parameters of chapter

[John R. Culleton]

On Saturday 12 August 2006 23:39, HRE -- wrote:
> Hello, How are you.
>
> How can I change the chapter style and add an own basic style. I mean, what
> are the commands that I have to use for making the changes (really, I need
> simple changes, for example: change the size, the alignment, the font and
> finally position).
>
> I hope an answer as soon as you read this, please.
>
> Thank you, very much.

The choice is between feeding the correct parameters to
whatever \chapter macro already exists or rolling your own.  Once
you roll your own it takes precedence over what has been furnished
in either a syle or in the format in use, LaTeX, Context etc.
 
In the case of novels I roll my own. In the case of non-fiction I
find there is sufficient flexibility in the existing Context
definitions. Unfortunately the standard LaTeX \chapter command
offers little flexibility. Perhaps there is a style like
memoir.sty that will help, I don't know. 

Here is a plain pdftex macro I used for a novel. It should also
work in LaTeX:

\def\chapter#1{%
\vfil\eject
\titlepagetrue
\ifodd\pageno\else
\vglue 1.5in
\centerline{\webx 8}
\vfil\eject
\titlepagetrue\fi
\vglue 1.8in
\line{\leaderw\lower 4.5pt\hbox{\head #1}\  \leaderw}
\vglue 1in}

If I had needed to create TOC entries and/or flexible page header entries that
would have required additional code. This novel needed neither. 

The \titlepage boolean was created with a \newif statement. It is
employed in my header routine to suppress or not suppress the
header line. 

The leader routine was defined thus:
\def\leaderw{\leaders\hrule height 1.2pt\hfil\ }  

The font webx used the WeboMints decorative font and was defined
thus:
\font\webx= WebOMintsGD at 60pt

This decoration was used when the page opposite the chapter head
was blank.

In Context there is sufficient flexibility to shape the header any
way you wish. The sequence starts
\setuphead[chapter]...

and then there are dozens of parameters as explained in the
Context manuals. I have an example but it is lengthy and not
apropos if you use LaTex. 
-- 
John Culleton
Able Indexing and Typesetting
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