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From: rig@eng.umd.edu (Ronald Greenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: TeX Headings
Message-ID: <1991Jun5.211203.25017@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 91 21:12:03 GMT
References: <1991Jun4.182659.6683@serval.net.wsu.edu>
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (C-News)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Lines: 24

In article <1991Jun4.182659.6683@serval.net.wsu.edu> rdubey@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu writes:
>I often hear it that LaTeX/TeX makes headings (such as chapter, 
>section etc.) that are way too big and the spaces that it leaves
>around them is also more than necessary.

I know you said you don't want a quick fix, but there is a really
simple quick fix that I sometimes use.  I have the stuff below in one
of my macro files.  Then I just use the command \modestsections if I
want the headers to be of more modest size/spacing.  (This is an ugly
mix of LaTeX and raw TeX in a way that the LaTeX book tells you not to
do, but it works.)

\newcommand{\modestsections}{
    \let\section=\subsection
        \renewcommand{\thesubsection}{\arabic{subsection}}
    \let\subsection=\subsubsection  % nos. def. in terms of section as before
    \let\subsubsection=\paragraph
    \let\paragraph=\subparagraph
    \renewcommand{\subparagraph}[1]{\paragraph{##1}
        \typeout{You've used the subparagraph command, which is the same as
                 the paragraph command since you're using modest sections.}}}
--

Ronald I. Greenberg		rig@eng.umd.edu