How can I add extra \pagemark that marks the number of the page where current chapter starts and where it ends?

Question

I'm using KOMA-Script scrbook class. And scrpage2 package for headings:

\usepackage{scrpage2}
\clearscrheadfoot
\pagestyle{scrheadings}
\cfoot[\pagemark]{\pagemark}
\chead[]{\headmark}

I want to add an extra pagemark on ofoot. The extra pagemark I need is like this: pp. 181-195, where 181 is the page number where current chapter starts and 195 is where chapter ends. Of course, I need this to change in every chapter.

Answer 1

I am not aware of a drop-in solution. However, you could do the following:

0) Define \currchapternick at the beginning of your document:

\newcommand{\currchapternick}{}

1) Surround each chapter by the following:

\renewcommand{\currchapternick}{unique-nick-for-chapter}
\label{begin-\currchapternick}
...
\label{end-\currchapternick}

2) Set ofoot as follows:

\ofoot[pp.~\pageref{begin-\currchapternick}--\pageref{end-\currchapternick}]%
      {pp.~\pageref{begin-\currchapternick}--\pageref{end-\currchapternick}}

I have tested the use of macros inside \label and \ref -- works. The code will produce the desired results if the contents of the footer are expanded lazily, which I presume. If not, you could still call \ofoot at the beginning of each chapter, as above.

According to this discussion in the mail archives, there is no such thing as \AtBeginChapter or \AtEndChapter, and hence no way to further automate this unless you delve deeply into TeX internals.

Answer 2

For this task and similar ones, the zref package comes in handy. Based on the abspage and thepage modules provided by this package, you can define a macro \chappagerangelabel as follows:

\documentclass{scrbook}

\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage[abspage, thepage]{zref}
\usepackage{scrpage2}
\usepackage{lipsum}% lorem ipsum placeholder text

\makeatletter

\newcounter{chappagerange}% auxiliary counter

\newcounter{chappointer}% auxiliary counter
\stepcounter{chappointer}% value 1 for first chapter

\newcommand*{\chappagerangelabel}{%
  \zref@label{chappagerange:\the\value{chappointer}}%
  \setcounter{chappagerange}{\zref@extract{chappagerange:\the\value{chappointer}}{abspage}}%
  \edef\thechappagerange{\zthepage{\the\value{chappagerange}}}% first page
  \stepcounter{chappointer}%
  \setcounter{chappagerange}{\zref@extract{chappagerange:\the\value{chappointer}}{abspage}-1}%
  \edef\thechappagerange{pp.~\thechappagerange--\zthepage{\the\value{chappagerange}}}% first page--last page
}

Now, define a macro \pagerangemark modelled after \pagemark:

\DeclareRobustCommand*{\pagerangemark}{%
  {\pnumfont\thechappagerange}%
}

\makeatother

Put \chappagerangelabel at the very beginning of each chapter and immediately after the last chapter and use \pagerangemark in \ofoot:

\begin{document}

\pagestyle{scrheadings}

\clearscrheadfoot
\cfoot[\pagemark]{\pagemark}
\chead[]{\headmark}

\frontmatter

\noindent
Text

\mainmatter

\ofoot[\pagerangemark]{\pagerangemark}

\chapter{A Chapter}
\chappagerangelabel

\lipsum[1-20]

\chapter{Another Chapter}
\chappagerangelabel

\lipsum[21-40]

\backmatter

\chappagerangelabel

\ofoot[]{}

\noindent
Text

\end{document}

Note that this solution does not allow for the case that the last page of the last chapter is also the last page of the whole document. Apart from that, it should work smoothly.