Headings in appendix `\section*`

Question

I'm using this and this approaches to get my appendix sections as I want, so a MWE of my code would look like:

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{headings}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\section{abc}
def
\section{ghi}
jkl

\appendix
\clearpage
\section*{Ap: ETC}
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{{Ap: ETC}}
\renewcommand{\thesubsection}{A.\arabic{subsection}}
App. content.

\subsection{First A.}
F. A. content.
\subsection{Second A.}
S. A. content.

\end{document}

The problem is that this makes the appendices pages heading to be the previous non-appendix section's one. One option may be to use \pagestyle{myheadings} and \markboth but, is there any more automatic solution?

Answer 1

If you have only one section in the appendix, it's better to define a command that does everything needed.

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{headings}

\newcommand{\appsection}[1]{%
  \clearpage
  \appendix
  \section*{#1}%
  \markboth{#1}{#1}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{#1}%
  \renewcommand{\thesubsection}{A.\arabic{subsection}}%
}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\clearpage

\section{abc}
def

\section{ghi}
jkl

\appsection{Ap: ETC}

App. content.

\subsection{First A.}
F. A. content.
\subsection{Second A.}
S. A. content.

\end{document}

This might be easily changed if there's more than one section in the appendix. Say

\newcommand{\startappendix}{%
  \clearpage\appendix
  \setcounter{section}{0}%
  \renewcommand{\thesection}{\Alph{section}}%
}

\newcommand{\appsection}[1]{%
  \refstepcounter{section}%
  \section*{#1}%
  \markboth{#1}{#1}%
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{#1}%
}

so that you can say

\startappendix

\appsection{First}
...

\appsection{Second}
...