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I am using AMS Latex Article template and I have this problem: The word "ABSTRACT" in the abstract section is, by default, all capitalized and not bold. I want to change that to bold and capitalize only the first letter of the word abtract. Can anyone help please?

\documentclass[timesroman11pt, reqno]{amsart} 
\renewcommand\abstractname{\textbf{Abstract}} \usepackage[left=1.1in,top=1in,right=1.1in,bottom=1in]{geometry} 
\usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{times} 
\usepackage{mathptm} 
\makeatletter 
\def\specialsection{\@startsection{section}{1}% 
\z@{\linespacing\@plus\linespacing}{.5\linespacing}% 
% {\normalfont\centering}}% DELETED 
{\normalfont}}% NEW 
\def\section{\@startsection{section}{1}% \z@{.7\linespacing\@plus\linespacing}{.5\linespacing}% 
% {\normalfont\scshape\centering}} % DELETED 
{\normalfont\bfseries\Large}}% NEW 
\makeatother
Ian Thompson
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Lawrence
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2 Answers2

4

Many document classes store standard section names such as Abstract and References in variables with names such as \abstractname and \refname. Often you just have to change their definition.

\renewcommand\abstractname{\textbf{Abstract}}

However, in this case things are slightly more complicated, because amsart.cls uses

\scshape\abstractname

to typeset the heading for the abstract. I think it's true to say that in the default font, there are no bold small capitals, so in

\scshape\textbf{\abstractname}

the \scshape gets ignored, and the above \renewcommand works as intended. However, if you load a font that does have these glyphs (e.g. with \usepackage{mathptmx}) then 'Abstract' will end up capitalised. To prevent this, you can use the etoolbox package to get rid of \scshape entirely, and replace it with \textbf.

\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{mathptmx}
\patchcmd{\abstract}{\scshape\abstractname}{\textbf{\abstractname}}{}{}
\begin{document}
\author{A Mathematician}
\title{A nice paper}
\begin{abstract}
This is the abstract.
\end{abstract}
\maketitle
\end{document}
Ian Thompson
  • 43,767
  • I try your suggestion and it fixes one part of the problem. The word Abstract is now bold but it still capitalizes the whole word abstract. I only need the first letter, i.e., letter "A", in the word abstract to be capitalized. Can you point out what I should do next? – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 10:14
  • @Lawrence --- strange. Only A is capitalised when I compile the above code on my machine. What version of amsart.cls are you using? – Ian Thompson Sep 11 '12 at 10:20
  • I use the latest version. It is strange because when I enter your code just by itself, it comes out right but when I incorporate it into my template, it capitalizes the whole word abstract. My be something in my template interfere with it. Below is the top part of my template – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 10:53
  • In that case, you need to edit your question and add a minimal example that reproduces the problem. – Ian Thompson Sep 11 '12 at 11:00
  • \documentclass[timesroman11pt, reqno]{amsart} \renewcommand\abstractname{\textbf{Abstract}} \usepackage[left=1.1in,top=1in,right=1.1in,bottom=1in]{geometry} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{times} \usepackage{mathptm} \makeatletter \def\specialsection{@startsection{section}{1}% \z@{\linespacing@plus\linespacing}{.5\linespacing}% % {\normalfont\centering}}% DELETED {\normalfont}}% NEW \def\section{@startsection{section}{1}% \z@{.7\linespacing@plus\linespacing}{.5\linespacing}% % {\normalfont\scshape\centering}}% DELETED {\normalfont\bfseries\Large}}% NEW \makeatother – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 11:05
  • If I remove \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{ragged2e} \usepackage{times} \usepackage{mathptm} from above, then it comes out right! – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 11:18
  • As soon as I add \usepackage{times} back in, it capitalizes the whole word abstract again! – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 11:26
  • So now I have two problems, to get the word abstract in the right form, i.e. only the letter A is capitalized, then it is in the wrong font (not times or times Roman). To get the right font, the word abstract will be in the wrong form (all letters in the word abstract are capitalized). – Lawrence Sep 11 '12 at 11:54
  • @Lawrence --- I have edited my answer. – Ian Thompson Sep 11 '12 at 12:49
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Looking at the definition of the abstract environment in amsart shows that the treatment of the abstract label is hard coded to use \scshape.

\newenvironment{abstract}{%
...
 \item[\hskip\labelsep\scshape\abstractname.]%
...

To override the intended behavior you need \abstractname to include a different font shape (e.g., \upshape). Something like \def\abstractname{\upshape\bfseries Abstract} should work.

StrongBad
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