Customize page header for even and odd pages WITHOUT fancyhdr

Question

I am using MastersDoctoralThesis for writing my thesis. Its default settings are:

• On even numbered pages: outer header has page number while inner header has chapter number
• On odd numbered pages: outer header has page number while inner header had section number

My university requirements are:

• On even numbered pages: outer header should have section number while inner header should have thesis title
• On odd numbered pages: outer header should have university name while inner header should have chapter number

I am successful in putting university name on page headers. However, I am unable to make the desired layout. I have done some work on lines 277-295 of MastersDoctoralThesis.cls. I have commented some original code.

\RequirePackage[markcase=used]{scrlayer-scrpage}
\providepairofpagestyles{thesisSimple}{%
    \clearpairofpagestyles%
%   \automark[chapter]{chapter}
%   \ihead{\headmark}% Inner header
%   \ohead[\pagemark]{\pagemark}% Outer header
    \automark[chapter]{chapter}
    \ohead{Jiangsu University Master's Degree Thesis}
    \ihead{\headmark}% Inner header
}
\ifoot{}% Inner footer
\ofoot{}% Outer footer
\pagestyle{thesisSimple}
%\pagestyle{scrheadings}
\providepairofpagestyles[thesisSimple]{thesis}{%
    \automark*[section]{}
    \ofoot[\pagemark]{\pagemark}
}

Note: Somehow fancyhdr is not supported by MastersDoctoralThesis.cls (line 302). Maybe we need to tweak scrlayer-scrpage.

Answer 1

It is not recommended to edit the class file. Change the settings in the document preamble:

\pagestyle{thesis}% defined by the class using package scrlayer-scrpage
\clearpairofpagestyles
\lehead{\ttitle}
\rehead{\rightmark}
\lohead{\leftmark}
\rohead{\univname}
\ofoot*{\pagemark}% or should there be no page number at all?

Example:

\documentclass[english,headsepline]{MastersDoctoralThesis}[2017/08/27]% v1.6 LaTeXTemplates.com
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{blindtext}% only for dummy text

\pagestyle{thesis}% defined by the class using package scrlayer-scrpage
\clearpairofpagestyles
\lehead{\ttitle}
\rehead{\rightmark}
\lohead{\leftmark}
\rohead{\univname}
\ofoot*{\pagemark}% or should there be no page number at all?

\thesistitle{Thesis Title}
\university{\href{http://www.university.com}{University Name}}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\pagestyle{plain}
\tableofcontents
\mainmatter
\pagestyle{thesis}
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\appendix
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\end{document}

---

Update

If there should be only "Chaptern <chapter number>" and "Section <section number>" in inner header, you can add the following code in the preamble before you select page style thesis:

\providecaptionname{english}{\Sectionname}{Section}
\makeatletter
\AddToLayerPageStyleOptions{thesis}{onselect={%
  \renewcommand*{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\chaptermarkformat}{}}%
  \renewcommand*{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{\sectionmarkformat}}%
  \renewcommand*\chaptermarkformat{\@chapapp~\thechapter}%
  \renewcommand*\sectionmarkformat{\Sectionname~\thesection}%
}}
\makeatother

Example:

\documentclass[english,headsepline]{MastersDoctoralThesis}[2017/08/27]% v1.6 LaTeXTemplates.com
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{blindtext}% only for dummy text

\providecaptionname{english}{\Sectionname}{Section}
\makeatletter
\AddToLayerPageStyleOptions{thesis}{onselect={%
  \renewcommand*{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\chaptermarkformat}{}}%
  \renewcommand*{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{\sectionmarkformat}}%
  \renewcommand*\chaptermarkformat{\@chapapp~\thechapter}%
  \renewcommand*\sectionmarkformat{\Sectionname~\thesection}%
}}
\makeatother

\pagestyle{thesis}
\clearpairofpagestyles
\lehead{\ttitle}
\rehead{\rightmark}
\lohead{\leftmark}
\rohead{\univname}
\ofoot*{\pagemark}

\thesistitle{Thesis Title}
\university{\href{http://www.university.com}{University Name}}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\pagestyle{plain}
\tableofcontents
\mainmatter
\pagestyle{thesis}
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\appendix
\Blinddocument\Blinddocument
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here is an example of how to create a page style (myheadings). I used scrbook instead of your thesis, but it should still work.

I added the words Chapter and Section and used \arabic{section} instead of \thesection. It should be noted that \chaptermark is called by \chapter and is passed the chapter title, while \sectionmark is called by \section and is passed the section title (which I ignored). This is so that if more than one section is on a page, the first section is used instead of the last.

\documentclass{scrbook}

\makeatletter
\def\ps@myheadings{% create myheadings pagestyle
    \def\@oddfoot{\hfil\thepage\hfil}%
    \def\@evenfoot{\hfil\thepage\hfil}%
    \def\@evenhead{\slshape\rightmark\hfil\@title}%
    \def\@oddhead{\slshape Universe City University\hfil\leftmark}%
    \let\@mkboth\@gobbletwo% disable
    \renewcommand*{\chaptermark}[1]{\markboth{\@chapapp\ \thechapter. \ }{}}%
    \renewcommand*{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{Section \arabic{section}. \ }}% no \sectionname defined
    }
\makeatother

\pagestyle{myheadings}
\renewcommand*{\chapterpagestyle}{myheadings}

\title{My Thesis}
\author{Me}

\usepackage{lipsum}% not part of solution

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\mainmatter
\chapter{First}
\section{Test}
\lipsum[1-12]
\end{document}