Abstract with heading to the left: abstract package broken?

Question

I try to get the abstract heading set to the left and the package abstract seems to provide this functionality. But the pdf contains the characters "centerflushleft" and the abstract title is centered. Is the package broken? I use texlive 2012. Is there another way to achieve the desired result?

\documentclass{scrartcl}

\usepackage{abstract}

\begin{document}

\absnamepos{flushleft}
%\abstitlestyle{\abstractname}
\setlength{\absleftindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\absrightindent}{0pt}



\begin{abstract}
\noindent
This paper provides an overview of the most important grammatical properties of German. A large part
of the paper is concerend with the basic clause types of German. I start with the Topological Fields Model,
which is very useful as a descriptive tool, but -- as will be shown -- not sufficient for a thorough
account of German clausal structure. I therefore explain additional theoretical assumptions that
were made in order to assign structure to the observable linear sequences. After a sketch of an
analysis of the basic sentence patterns, I
give an account of passive, case assignment, and subject-verb agreement.
\end{abstract}

\end{document}

The package doesn't respect the KOMA-script classes settings. Just as an example, the sans-serif font used by default for the titles of the sectional units is lost in the abstract just by loading the package. — Gonzalo Medina, Jul 11 '13 at 14:04

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 11 '13 at 13:51

The \absnamepos command is defined in abstract.sty by

\newcommand{\absnamepos}{center}

so you should use \renewcommand:

\documentclass{scrartcl}

\usepackage{abstract}
\renewcommand{\absnamepos}{flushleft}
\setlength{\absleftindent}{0pt}
\setlength{\absrightindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{abstract}
\noindent
This paper provides an overview of the most important grammatical properties of German. A large part
of the paper is concerend with the basic clause types of German. I start with the Topological Fields Model,
which is very useful as a descriptive tool, but -- as will be shown -- not sufficient for a thorough
account of German clausal structure. I therefore explain additional theoretical assumptions that
were made in order to assign structure to the observable linear sequences. After a sketch of an
analysis of the basic sentence patterns, I
give an account of passive, case assignment, and subject-verb agreement.
\end{abstract}

\end{document}

@StefanMüller The user documentation is not really clear about this. — egreg, Jul 11 '13 at 14:00

Gonzalo Medina · Answer 2 · 2013-07-11T14:08:49.147

The abstract package is not fully compatible with the KOMA classes; for example, just by loading it, the sans-serif font used by default for the sectional units is lost for the abstract.

Instead of using this package, to keep consistency with the class settings, you can redefine the way abstract is defined in scrartcl.cls:

\documentclass[abstract,titlepage]{scrartcl}

\makeatletter
\renewenvironment{abstract}{%
  \if@titlepage
    \titlepage
    \null\vfil
    \@beginparpenalty\@lowpenalty
    \if@abstrt
      \begin{flushleft}
        \normalfont\sectfont\nobreak\abstractname
        \@endparpenalty\@M
      \end{flushleft}
    \fi
  \else
    \if@twocolumn\if@abstrt
        \addsec*{\abstractname}
      \fi
      \quotation
    \else
      \if@abstrt
        \par\small\noindent%
          {\normalfont\sectfont\nobreak\abstractname\par\vspace{.5em}}%
      \fi
    \fi
  \fi
}{%
  \if@titlepage
    \par\vfil\null\endtitlepage
  \else
    \if@twocolumn\else\endquotation\fi
  \fi
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{abstract}
\noindent
This paper provides an overview of the most important grammatical properties of German. A large part
of the paper is concerend with the basic clause types of German. I start with the Topological Fields Model,
which is very useful as a descriptive tool, but -- as will be shown -- not sufficient for a thorough
account of German clausal structure. I therefore explain additional theoretical assumptions that
were made in order to assign structure to the observable linear sequences. After a sketch of an
analysis of the basic sentence patterns, I
give an account of passive, case assignment, and subject-verb agreement.
\end{abstract}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Thanks! De Gruyter wants the abstract in italics. Where would I integrate this into the above code? — Stefan Müller, Jul 11 '13 at 18:06
@StefanMüller You can use \itshape right after the \noindent command inside abstract. This will change the font of the abstract body. Do you also need to change the font of the title "Abstract"? — Gonzalo Medina, Jul 11 '13 at 18:24

Abstract with heading to the left: abstract package broken?

2 Answers2