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My Table of Contents shows different spacing between lines when a chapter has sections and subsections and when it doesn't. I need the same spacing above ad below every chapter while keeping sections and subsections single spaced in the ToC. I'd appreciate any help.

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  • 1
    Can you post a minimal example? Without it's pretty difficult to help you since you may have loaded a package which exactly does what you don't like.
    – Uwe Ziegenhagen
    Dec 23, 2012 at 18:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The following works for the default document classes that support \chapter (report and book):

enter image description here

\documentclass{report}
\makeatletter
\let\old@makechapterhead\@makechapterhead
\renewcommand{\@makechapterhead}{%
  \addtocontents{toc}{\protect\addvspace{1.0em \@plus\p@}}%
  \old@makechapterhead%
}
\renewcommand*\l@chapter[2]{%
  \ifnum \c@tocdepth >\m@ne
    \addpenalty{-\@highpenalty}%
    \addvspace{1.0em \@plus\p@}%
    \setlength\@tempdima{1.5em}%
    \begingroup
      \parindent \z@ \rightskip \@pnumwidth
      \parfillskip -\@pnumwidth
      \leavevmode \bfseries
      \advance\leftskip\@tempdima
      \hskip -\leftskip
      #1\nobreak\hfil \nobreak\hb@xt@\@pnumwidth{\hss #2}\par
      \penalty\@highpenalty
    \endgroup
  \fi}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{A chapter}\section{A section}\section{A section}
\chapter{A chapter}
\chapter{A chapter}\section{A section}\section{A section}
\chapter{A chapter}\section{A section}\subsection{A subsection}\subsection{A subsection}
\chapter{A chapter}
\end{document}

The solution does two things. It...

  1. ...modifies \l@chapter - the macro responsible for setting the chapter-related entry in the ToC - to use \addvspace instead of the "traditional" \vskip. This is just to ensure that there's no "doubling" of vertical spaces when adding more \vspace.
  2. ...uses \@makechapterhead to insert a vertical space (again, using \addvspace) into the ToC so that there's a space after the ToC entry.

Using a similar approach to the solution provided in Add dots in table of contents for parts for LaTeX document, adding dots to the chapter-entries in the ToC is possible via

\renewcommand*\l@chapter[2]{%
  \ifnum \c@tocdepth >\m@ne
    \addpenalty{-\@highpenalty}%
    \addvspace{1.0em \@plus\p@}%
    \setlength\@tempdima{1.5em}%
    \begingroup
      \parindent \z@ \rightskip \@pnumwidth
      \parfillskip -\@pnumwidth
      \leavevmode \bfseries
      \advance\leftskip\@tempdima
      \hskip -\leftskip
      #1\nobreak
      \xleaders\hbox{$\m@th % Added \xleaders
        \mkern \@dotsep mu\hbox{.}\mkern \@dotsep
        mu$}\hfil\nobreak\hb@xt@\@pnumwidth{\hss #2}\par
      \penalty\@highpenalty
    \endgroup
  \fi}

enter image description here

Instead of using \leaders, I've used \xleaders. The difference between these to leader types are discussed in Want to fill line with repeating string.

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  • Thanks for your answer and explanation. How do I control the space between "Page" and the first item in toc? After the fix it added more space. Also chapters are bold, can I remove the boldface and add dotted line?
    – user23612
    Dec 23, 2012 at 18:58
  • @user23612: Since the default ToC does not come with a "Page" label, could you include a minimal working example (MWE) that contains your current setup and add it to your original post? This should start with \documentclass, end with \end{document} and include some mock-up of a document as I did in my answer.
    – Werner ♦
    Dec 23, 2012 at 19:05
  • Sorry is my first time using this forum. It gives me errors when I type LaTeX. I fixed the distance to Page issue, just need to add the dottedtocline.
    – user23612
    Dec 23, 2012 at 19:11

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