Start new page with each section

Question

I would like to start each section on a new page. Is adding the following to my preamble this the preferred method, or a hack?

\let\stdsection\section
\renewcommand\section{\newpage\stdsection}

Perhaps you would like to use \clearpage instead of \newpage if you use floats. — Stefan Kottwitz, Jan 22 '11 at 22:11
Why not use a document class that allows chapters, and use them instead (since they automatically start on new page..) — Seamus, Jan 22 '11 at 22:34
@Stefan you are correct, although my present document is not using floats. — David LeBauer, Jan 22 '11 at 22:38
ASeamus not a bad idea, but I'd prefer not to have to change the document class — David LeBauer, Jan 22 '11 at 22:39
Alternatively, just find and replace all \section{ with \clearpage\section{ — Seamus, Jan 22 '11 at 22:41
@Seamus I'd like to use this in emacs org-mode, so it is more straightforward to place this in the preamble — David LeBauer, Jan 22 '11 at 22:44

score 115 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 22 '11 at 23:37

115

The titlesec package allows to do this with just

\newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage}

It's cleaner than what you were doing and the package also allows to completely customize sections. Here's a fully compilable code sample showing how it works:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{titlesec}
\newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage}

\begin{document}

Text

\section{Title}
Text
\subsection{Title}
Text
\subsection{Title}
Text

\section{Title}
Text

\end{document}

answered Jan 22 '11 at 23:37

Philippe Goutet

28,978

20

note: if you have a \subsection without content, the \section after it won't be pushed to a new page. I don't know whether this is a bug, expected, or irrelevant, but I thought it's worth mentioning it as first I was a bit puzzled why the \clearpage solution didn't work. – Karoly Horvath Jul 26 '13 at 17:43
3

@KarolyHorvath: if you look up the code for \ttl@straight@ii in titlesec.sty, you clearly see the explanation for this phenomenon: the \sectionbreak command is only used if the boolean @nobreak is false, which is not the case just after a subsection title (but is once some text has been typesetted). One could easily patch \ttl@straight@ii to behave as you want, but it's probably simpler to use the solution from http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/47047 – Philippe Goutet Jul 26 '13 at 19:11
Thanks, this works also great with \thispagestyle{plain} together with \pagestyle{fancyplain} from the fancyhdr package. – JonnyJD May 12 '15 at 08:16
This seems to be move all pictures to a separate page that I have in my document with \begin{figure}. Is this intended? – inimene Apr 26 '16 at 18:41
2

@Kaspar: yes, that's what \clearpage does (it clears all figures then makes a page break). Try using another pagebreaking command like \pagebreak if you don't want this. – Philippe Goutet Apr 27 '16 at 04:55
1

This solution causes problems when the document includes a ToC and hyperref support: It makes the paging of the hyperref links be off-sync with the document paging (e.g. clicking on Section 3 which is on p4 will take you to p3 instead). In this sense, the hack in the original question is the better approach... – landroni Nov 07 '16 at 20:36
4

@landroni: no, it works perfectly. You're probably loading hyperref before titlesec, which is why it doesn't work (there are a few exceptions, but generally speaking, hyperref should be the last package you load). Alternatively, you can make if work with hyperref loaded first by using \newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage\phantomsection}. – Philippe Goutet Nov 09 '16 at 06:45
Thank you. The latter works indeed in LyX. I've now added an answer that also shows an alternative way to make sure that the packages are loaded in the correct order. – landroni Nov 12 '16 at 09:57
This seems to leave one blank page if your document starts with a new section. Is there a way to account for other than manually telling Tex not to clear that first page? – Jim May 07 '20 at 06:03
1

@Jim: I don't see that happening in the above code when commenting the first "Text". Maybe something else is interfering? Alternatively, you could always try something like \newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\ifnum\value{page}=1\ifnum\value{section}=1\else\clearpage\fi\else\clearpage\fi} – Philippe Goutet May 07 '20 at 07:47
@PhilippeGoutet It turned out I had some text before my first \section and that made the first \section to use \clearpage right after that text. Which makes sense. However, things don't work out for me in general, because apparently titlesec doesn't go well with the documentclass amsart which I need. Thanks anyway, I liked your approach. – Jim May 11 '20 at 03:08

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 22 '11 at 22:37

13

Obligatory ConTeXt solution:

\setuphead[section][page=yes] % or page=right

answered Jan 22 '11 at 22:37

Aditya

62,301

2

This mysterious answer seems to have more than what meet the eyes. Care to elaborate? Thanks. – DrBeco Sep 25 '18 at 04:41
1

@DrBeco: ConTeXt is a macro package built on TeX (just as LaTeX is a macro package built on TeX). ConTeXt has a much more consistent user interface and many questions that arise in LaTeX have a simple solution in ConTeXt. I am one of the few ConTeXt users on this site. And when I wrote this answer, I was proving ConTeXt solution to various LaTeX questions. – Aditya Sep 25 '18 at 07:13
If tex4ht would work with context, I would try context. But from what I understand tex4ht only works with latex. This is a major limitation to many who want to convert latex to HTML as well to pdf. – Nasser May 17 '19 at 04:30
1

ConTeXt supports XHTML and XML export out of the box: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Export – Aditya May 17 '19 at 20:43

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 28 '21 at 14:59

12

With an uptodate TeX distribution you can use

\AddToHook{cmd/section/before}{\clearpage}

Example:

\documentclass{article}
\AddToHook{cmd/section/before}{\clearpage}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
Text
\section{Title}
Text
\subsection{Title}
Text
\subsection{Title}
Text
\section{Title}
Text
\end{document}

answered Jul 28 '21 at 14:59

esdd

85,675

thanks - I've made this the accepted answer since it is the simplest and doesn't require another package – David LeBauer Jul 28 '21 at 20:36
How can I learn about the \AddToHook{}{} command? – youthdoo Jan 03 '23 at 13:29
@youthdoo See http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/base/lthooks-doc.pdf or use texdoc lthooks-doc in a command prompt. – esdd Jan 07 '23 at 12:25

score 8 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

The accepted answer in that form won't work as expected in LyX. This solution causes problems when the document includes a ToC and hyperref support: It makes the paging of the hyperref links be off-sync with the document paging (e.g. clicking on Section 3 which is on p4 will take you to p3 instead).

As mentioned in the comments, this happens because by default LyX is loading hyperref before titlesec. To work around this you can use \newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage\phantomsection}.

Alternatively, in LyX, you can include in Document Settings > Local Layout:

Provides hyperref

And then load hyperref manually in the LaTeX preamble, like this:

\usepackage{titlesec}
\newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage}
\usepackage{hyperref}

+1 for the discussion on LyX. The wider TeX-universe is very diverse, so all aspects are quite valuable to one or the other. — Dohn Joe, May 20 '21 at 11:26

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 15:41

7

Another solution, which uses the sectsty package:

\usepackage{sectsty}
\sectionfont{\clearpage}

answered Oct 05 '17 at 15:41

Mico

506,678

1

Thanks, this finally worked. Tre previous answers, including the accepted answer, didn't do the job in overleaf – NeStack Apr 29 '21 at 14:58

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 13 '14 at 09:52

3

An alternative solution is to enclose each section in an \include, because \include does an automatic \clearpage before. No preamble necessary!

answered Nov 13 '14 at 09:52

guus

31

5

Welcome to TeX.SX! While this works, it may require quite a substantial change to the set-up of the document. – Andrew Swann Nov 13 '14 at 10:01

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 04 '18 at 06:32

2

I would rather use what Philippe Goutet has already mentioned.

\usepackage{titlesec}
\newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage}

These are very convenient and save you the effort of typing \clearpage at the end of each section. Needless to mentioned that you can apply the same to \subsection and \subsubsection. You can also manage the spacing between the section title and the first paragraph.

Perhaps you should take a look at the documentation if you're interested.

answered Jun 04 '18 at 06:32

KareemJ

147

1

Would you add this information to the answer above? When answers don't add new information, they may be downvoted on this site. – Yaroslav Nikitenko Sep 06 '18 at 16:07
So should I delete my answer? – KareemJ Sep 07 '18 at 19:16
3

Yes, I think that the basis of your question doesn't add anything. If there is something new, you can add that as an edit. Brevity is good, few answers (if new answers don't add information) are good for stackexchange. – Yaroslav Nikitenko Sep 09 '18 at 12:40

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 16 '21 at 13:48

I used to use the \renewcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage} solution, but it stopped working when I wanted to change the font color using secsty...

so had to use this instead:

\usepackage{etoolbox}
\preto{\section}{%
  \ifnum\value{section}=0 \else\clearpage\fi
}

the conditional is there to keep it from putting the first section of a new chapter on a new page. If you want also the first section of each chapter on a new page you can simply use

\preto{\section}{\clearpage} with etoolbox or \sectionfont{\clearpage} with secsty

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 24 '21 at 19:28

For me, only a combination of the previous answers works correctly:

\usepackage{sectsty}
\sectionfont{\clearpage\phantomsection}

(The same without \phantomsection causes refs point to incorrect page. And \newcommand{\sectionbreak}{\clearpage} causes an error with pandoc, with or without \phantomsection.)

Start new page with each section

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