In my table of contents, created using titletoc, there are some alignment problems that I am unable to debug.
Problem 1:
My code allows me to control the label width for chapters and sections, but not for parts: there the label width seems to depend on the letter used as part label (I need to use customized part labels, involving letters that correlate with the part titles), with W producing a much wider label width than I. This results in part titles that are not aligned with the chapter titles.
Problem 2:
The page numbers on the right are not well aligned -- this is glaringly clear for part page numbers larger than 100, but actually also true for boldface chapter numbers versus unboldface section numbers. I need to use \large boldface fonts for part, and normalsize boldface fonts for chapters.
Help would be much appreciated! I have spent hours customizing the toc using the titletoc package, hence would prefer a solution using that package rather than switching to something else.
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,openany]{book}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{cmss}
\usepackage[pagestyles, outermarks]{titlesec}
\usepackage{titletoc}
\titlecontents{part}[0mm]
{\vspace{12pt}\large\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{10mm}}{}
{\titlerule*[.75em]\bfseries{\contentspage}}
\titlecontents{chapter}[9.3mm]
{\vspace{4pt}\normalsize\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{9.3mm}}{}
{\titlerule*[.75em]\bfseries{\contentspage}}
\titlecontents{section}[21.6mm]
{\vspace{0pt}\normalsize\normalfont}
{\contentslabel[\thecontentslabel]{12.3mm}}{}
{\titlerule*[.75em]{.}{\contentspage}}
\begin{document}
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\chapter*{Preface}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Preface}
\clearpage
\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{I}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{I\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{I\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\renewcommand{\thesubsection}{}
\clearpage
\part{Island}
\chapter{Desert}
\section{Shelter}
\chapter{Paradise}
\section{Beach}
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{W}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{W\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{W\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\setcounter{page}{50}
\clearpage
\part{Water}
\chapter{Ice}
\section{Snow}
\chapter{Liquid}
\section{Wave}
\clearpage
\setcounter{page}{400}
\renewcommand\thepart{L}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{L\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{L\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\part{Land}
\chapter{Continent}
\section{Mountain}
\chapter{Rock}
\section{Stone}
\clearpage
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{A}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{A\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{A\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\part{Animals}
\chapter{Mammals}
\section{Humans}
\chapter{Reptiles}
\section{Lizards}
\end{document}
I have actually come upon a solution to problem 2 (page-number-non-alignment) just now at this post Apparently \bfseries{\contentspage} influences the line filling in an unwanted way. The solution is to use \hfill\bfseries\thecontentspage, as in the revised code below, which produces nicely right-aligned page numbers, see below. I'm still stuck with problem 1, though.
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,openany]{book}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{cmss}
\usepackage[pagestyles, outermarks]{titlesec}
\usepackage{titletoc}
\titlecontents{part}[0mm]
{\vspace{12pt}\large\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{10mm}}{}
{\hfill\bfseries\thecontentspage}
\titlecontents{chapter}[9.3mm]
{\vspace{4pt}\normalsize\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{9.3mm}}{}
{\hfill\bfseries\thecontentspage}
\titlecontents{section}[21.6mm]
{\vspace{0pt}\normalsize\normalfont}
{\contentslabel[\thecontentslabel]{12.3mm}}{}
{\titlerule*[.75em]{.}\thecontentspage}
\begin{document}
\pagenumbering{roman}
\tableofcontents
\clearpage
\chapter*{Preface}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Preface}
\clearpage
\pagenumbering{arabic}
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{I}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{I\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{I\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\renewcommand{\thesubsection}{}
\clearpage
\part{Island}
\chapter{Desert}
\section{Shelter}
\chapter{Paradise}
\section{Beach}
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{W}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{W\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{W\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\setcounter{page}{50}
\clearpage
\part{Water}
\chapter{Ice}
\section{Snow}
\chapter{Liquid}
\section{Wave}
\clearpage
\setcounter{page}{400}
\renewcommand\thepart{L}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{L\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{L\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\part{Land}
\chapter{Continent}
\section{Mountain}
\chapter{Rock}
\section{Stone}
\clearpage
\setcounter{chapter}{0}
\renewcommand\thepart{A}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{{A\arabic{chapter}}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{{A\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}}
\part{Animals}
\chapter{Mammals}
\section{Humans}
\chapter{Reptiles}
\section{Lizards}
\end{document}
Following up on the patch suggested by esdd to gain control of the label width for part, I post essd's version with two lines added to format the title of parts. These lines somehow interfere with the patch, because the title label is now shifted to the right.
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,openany]{book}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{cmss}
\usepackage[pagestyles, outermarks]{titlesec}
\usepackage{titletoc}
\titleclass{\part}{top}
\titleformat{\part}[display]% this line messes up the patch
{\normalfont\Huge}{\centering\thepart}{1em}{\centering}
\titleformat{\chapter}{\normalfont\LARGE}{\thechapter}{1em}{}
\titleformat{\section}{\normalfont\Large}{\thesection}{1em}{}
\titlecontents{part}[10mm]
{\vspace{12pt}\large\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{10mm}}{}
{\hfill\thecontentspage}
\titlecontents{chapter}[10mm]
{\vspace{4pt}\normalsize\normalfont\bfseries}
{\contentslabel{10mm}}{}
{\hfill\thecontentspage}
\titlecontents{section}[22.3mm]
{\vspace{0pt}\normalsize\normalfont}
{\contentslabel[\thecontentslabel]{12.3mm}}{}
{\titlerule*[.75em]{.}\thecontentspage}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd\@part
{\addcontentsline{toc}{part}{\thepart\hspace{1em}#1}}
{\addcontentsline{toc}{part}{\protect\numberline{\thepart}#1}}
{}{\PatchFailed}
\makeatother
\usepackage[linktocpage]{hyperref}% after the patch
titletocis intrinsically incapable of distinguishing a numbered part entry from an unnumbered part entry: it will always treat it as unnumbered and\contentslabelnever does anything. At least in thebookclass. To avoid that you would need to hack into\partmacro to modify what it adds to.tocfile.