Command-variants that are followed by a *.
108
votes
4answers
8k views
What's the difference between \newcommand and \newcommand*?
I just spotted someone use \newcommand* in an answer and realised that I'd never quite sorted out in my head what the star (asterisk) was there for.
(This one is practically impossible to search for ...
35
votes
3answers
1k views
Defining starred versions of commands
I would like to define a *'d version of a command, something like
\newcommand{\foo}{blah}
\newcommand{\foo*}{blahblah}
If I try to do this, LaTeX complains that I'm trying to redefine \foo, so I ...
15
votes
1answer
4k views
How to make a figure span on two columns in a scientific paper?
If I just try to set the figure's size to 0.9\textwidth my figure will just end up on the right column, sized to be two-columns wide.
Has anyone done this before?
7
votes
4answers
574 views
Swap definition of starred and non-starred command
I don't like the fact that I am required to use \abs* when I want the vertical line of the absolute value to automatically re-size. I pretty much always want it to re-size, so would like to swap the ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
Centering \section* and adding them to the ToC
I'm using LaTeX and the book class and have one problem:
I want that my starred sections (only starred sections) appear in the center of the pages instead of the left side of the pages and also these ...
6
votes
1answer
301 views
Use \csname … \endcsname to compute the starred-version of some command
I want to define some commands declaring paired delimiters using the mathtools package in LaTeX. For example, \paren{...} should result in \left(...\right), whereas \paren[Big]{...} should give ...
21
votes
4answers
669 views
Do all starred commands have anything in common?
\section* produces an unnumbered section, align* makes the environment unnumbered, which is comparable in a way. \newcommand* doesn't accept \par in its argument, which is different.
Stefan Kottwitz ...
3
votes
2answers
829 views
Fix for amsart.cls tableofcontents bug regarding starred sections?
The command \section* is meant to produce a section that is not listed in the table of contents. However, when using amsart.cls, such sections are still listed. I believe this is a known bug.
How ...
11
votes
2answers
4k views
Creating unnumbered chapters/sections (plus adding them to the ToC and/or header)
I'm using the report document class for a thesis, and I need to add things like "Acknowledgements" and an "Introduction". I noticed that there is an \abstract command which would have been wonderful ...
6
votes
1answer
590 views
Starred equivalent in newenvironment
Let's say I want to use the align-environment in a newenvironment like this:
\newenvironment{mequation}{\align}{\endalign}
This works fine. However, what if I want to use the starred version of ...
16
votes
4answers
403 views
Do starred commands eat up space after them?
Do starred commands eat up spaces after them, like unstarred ones do? That is, is \somecommand* nextword equivalent to \somecommand*nextword?
And: Does it depend on the particular way a starred ...
11
votes
1answer
300 views
Defining variants of \small and \large that use \normalsize's line spacing
As a partial workaround for grid typesetting, I'd like to define variants of \small and \large that behave like their standard counterparts except that they use the line spacing of \normalsize. I know ...
5
votes
3answers
504 views
How to reset footnote numbering at \chapter* and at frontmatter chapters?
A comment to my answer to Biblatex and citation reset between chapters made me realize that, contrary to normal chapters in the book and report class, \chapter* (the starred version) does not reset ...
3
votes
1answer
862 views
header and chapter*
I find it strange that the page header in the chapter “Title2” is not updated in the example below:
\documentclass[12pt]{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{Title1}
...
17
votes
3answers
510 views
What does \\* do?
I have some code, and when I use \\*, it causes some things to become unaligned, but when I use \\, the alignment is correct.
What's the difference?
6
votes
1answer
228 views
How do I make appear no-numbered sections in the hyperlinks (bookmarks) of a PDF?
I am using \section*{} to get unnumbered sections in a document. I need to get those sections in the bookmarks of the resulting PDF but they don't show up.
In addition, if the first section is ...
20
votes
2answers
1k views
Meaning of an asterisk (*) in a macro name
What does the * in the starred version of a macro "mean"? I know for \section and \section* the * controls numbering and for \newcommand and \newcommand* the * determines if the macro is long. What I ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
What's the difference between align and align*?
After some brief searching I can't find the difference between align and align*. Google summarily ignoring the * is making it harder I think.
Can you tell me the difference between these two?
...
16
votes
1answer
193 views
What is the difference between \newenvironment and \newenvironment*?
I vaguely seem to recall reading that \newenvironment* gives better spacing than \newenvironment, but I don't recall any details and I can't seem to find a reference by searching. What is the ...
11
votes
2answers
106 views
Is there any reason to define a zero-argument macro using a starred defining command?
Is there any reason to define a 0-argument (read: zero-argument) macro with a starred command (\newcommand* instead of \newcommand or \DeclareRobustCommand* instead of \DeclareRobustCommand)? After ...
9
votes
1answer
127 views
Removing Subordinated Headline Levels From The ToC Automatically When Using `*`
Usually, when you use section*{}only the section will be removed from the toc. In order to remove subordinated subsections you have to add the *.
Is it possible to define a command that removes ...
8
votes
3answers
364 views
Proper way to include unnumbered chapters in a per-chapter bibliography using biblatex
I've been using example 3.11.4 of the biblatex documentation to generate a per-chapter bibliography at the end of my thesis. It works great, until I try to make my introduction into an unnumbered ...
2
votes
2answers
794 views
Starred version of “xtabular” not working
I want to insert a long table in a two-column paper. I tried "tabular" first, but the problem is that it doesn't divide the table among pages. Then people in this post suggested that I use xtab:
In ...
1
vote
2answers
94 views
Add a hrule to only chapter not numbered
I am thinking of adding a hrule to only chapters that are not numbered, in other words the chapters created using chapter*{}. I thought of using the titlesec package- My problem is that I cannot find ...
