When compiling large documents (with chapters) it is often useful to put different parts in separate files. I do this with the standalone
-documentclass for all my tikzpictures. That way I can compile each separate part that I'm currently working on. I'd like to do the same with chapters in books. However, the standalone
-documentclass doesn't have chapters. Thus, Ive defined my own chapter-command. And, as an example, changed the counter of the section-command to be printed with the chapter number. We could do the same with figures, tables, etc. My question is: Should there be more in my definition of the chapter-command to satisfy packages which depend on the chapter-command? Does the chapter have more "offsprings" like the chapter-counter?
MWE:
\documentclass[crop=false,a4paper]{standalone}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
\newcounter {chapter}
\renewcommand \thechapter {\@arabic\c@chapter}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{\arabic{chapter}.\arabic{section}}
\newcommand\chaptername{Chapter}
\newcommand\chapter[1]{
\refstepcounter{chapter}
\vspace*{2em}\noindent\Huge\chaptername\hspace*{0.25em} \thechapter\\
\vspace*{.25em}\\
\noindent{#1}\\
\normalsize
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\chapter{A test chapter}
\section{First section}
\subsection{First sub}
\subsection{Second sub}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}
Update:
Qrrbrbirlbel's suggested a simple and good approach using class=book
as a class option:
\documentclass[class=book,crop=false,a4paper]{standalone}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\chapter{A test chapter}
\section{First section}
\subsection{First sub}
\subsection{Second sub}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}
standalone
for chapters in your book is at least inconvenient. I would recommend you to divide the document into several files, and\include
them, with the possible help of the\includeonly
command.class=book
as a class option? Though, I recommend @tohecz’s tip for real books.