# Distinguish even/odd pages in header with oneside option

See the MWE below. How can I achieve (in the standard book class) that despite the oneside option odd and even pages are distinguished in the header? I would like to have that, also with oneside printing, the header of odd pages displays the chapter while the header of even pages displays the section, just as it would be the case without the oneside option.

\documentclass[oneside]{book}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\usepackage[
a4paper,
textwidth=16cm,
outer=2cm,
textheight=45\baselineskip,
headheight=\baselineskip,
includehead=true,% Default
heightrounded,
]{geometry}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[LO]{\leftmark}
\fancyhead[RE]{\rightmark}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\thepage}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\fancyfoot{}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Chapter One}
\section{Section One of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum
\section{Section Two of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum

\end{document}

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Why use oneside? Just set a symmetrical page geometry with the geometry package. –  Stephan Lehmke Aug 28 '12 at 9:37
Well, oneside has some (desired) side-effects, for example, \cleardoublepage behaves like \clearpage ... therefore I use the option. Of course, I could redefine \renewcommand{\cleardoublepage}{\clearpage}for the oneside version ... but just now I am not sure whether oneside has further consequences I am overlooking ... –  lpdbw Aug 28 '12 at 9:40
Moreover, even in the oneside version I dont really want a symmetric layout, but the inner margin should be larger so as to allow for binding –  lpdbw Aug 28 '12 at 9:49
Still I think twoside is the way to go. –  Stephan Lehmke Aug 28 '12 at 9:51
OK, with \renewcommand{\cleardoublepage}{\clearpage} at the beginning of the preamble there are no more blank pages produced by twoside. But how do you solve the problem with changing inner and outer margins? (I edited my question and added my page layout) Ah, I see, it's the asymmetric option in the geometry package I need. –  lpdbw Aug 28 '12 at 10:03
show 4 more comments

## 2 Answers

Another alternative is to use oneside, but toggle headers based on the page number, like this:

\documentclass[oneside]{book}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{ifthen}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[L]{\ifthenelse{\isodd{\value{page}}}{\leftmark}{\rightmark}}
\fancyhead[R]{\thepage}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\fancyfoot{}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Chapter One}
\section{Section One of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum
\section{Section Two of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum

\end{document}

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What are the pros and cons of both solutions? I mean, is one of the two solutions "cleaner"/more elegant/more robust or whatever than the other? I don't have a feeling for this and I am not sure which answer should be the accepted one ... –  lpdbw Aug 29 '12 at 12:40
@lpdbw Although I initially suggested twoside, I think sticking to oneside is cleaner after all. twoside just has too many side effects like symmetrical margins on spreads etc. –  Stephan Lehmke Aug 29 '12 at 12:45
OK, so I will accept this answer. Maybe it also fits the original question better since the question actually was how to solve a certain problem under the assumption that oneside option is used. –  lpdbw Aug 29 '12 at 12:50
Could it be that the ifthen package has incompatibilies with other packages, e.g. etoolbox? –  lpdbw Aug 29 '12 at 12:51
@lpdbw I can't imagine that, because it's part of the LaTeX base. There might be issues with fragility in certain contexts, though. If you're having problems, there are lots of alternatives. I just wanted to use the "standard method". –  Stephan Lehmke Aug 29 '12 at 12:53
show 3 more comments

Inspired by Stefan Lehmke's comment I found the following solution:

• Use twoside.
• Add \renewcommand{\cleardoublepage}{\clearpage} to avoid that LaTeX forces chapters to start always on even pages (put at the end of the preamble).
• Add the option asymmetric in the geometry package so that inner and outer marges are not swapped on alternate pages.

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}

\usepackage[
a4paper,
asymmetric,
textwidth=16cm,
outer=2cm,
textheight=45\baselineskip,
headheight=\baselineskip,
includehead=true,% Default
heightrounded,
]{geometry}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyhead[LO]{\leftmark}
\fancyhead[RE]{\rightmark}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{\thepage}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\fancyfoot{}

\renewcommand{\cleardoublepage}{\clearpage}

\begin{document}

\chapter{Chapter One}
\section{Section One of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum
\section{Section Two of Chapter One}
\lipsum
\lipsum

\chapter{Chapter Two}
\section{Section One of Chapter Two}
\lipsum
\lipsum
\section{Section Two of Chapter Two}
\lipsum
\lipsum

\end{document}


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