New command to turn to italics

Question

I'd like to create a command that will turn all of the text that follows into italics, but something isn't working. Where am I going wrong?

p.s.: I know I could do it differently, but it's important that it's really a command!

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,draft]{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\newcommand\Tom{\par\bigskip\noindent\hbox to35mm{Tom\hfil}\hangindent=35mm }
\newcommand\Mary{\par\bigskip\noindent\hbox to35mm{Mary\hfil}\hangindent=35mm }
\newcommand\action{\par\bigskip\noindent\itshape}
\begin{document}
\Tom
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\action
This is the action line to put into the new text
\Mary
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\end{document}

do you not need to enclose the text in curly brackets? E.g. \Tom{bla bla bla} — Plergux, Dec 15 '20 at 10:07
Why do you say it isn't working? All text printed after \action is italic. — campa, Dec 15 '20 at 10:09
I was just going to make the same comment as @campa, I added an image, all the text following \action is italic, so what is your question exactly? — David Carlisle, Dec 15 '20 at 10:09
@Plergux why braces? (they would not make any difference here, the commands are not defined to take an argument) — David Carlisle, Dec 15 '20 at 10:11
You are correct. Now it works for me too! I had misspelled a word. Sorry! — Andy Toff, Dec 15 '20 at 10:32

egreg · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-15T10:27:49.883

So long as you always follow the action directive with a blank line, you can do

\newcommand{\action}{} % to avoid overwriting an existing command
\def\action#1\par{\par\bigskip\noindent\textit{#1}\par}

Full example with other fixes:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,draft]{report}
\newcommand\Tom{\par\bigskip\noindent\makebox[35mm][l]{Tom}\hangindent=35mm }
\newcommand\Mary{\par\bigskip\noindent\makebox[35mm][l]{Mary}\hangindent=35mm }
\newcommand\action{}
\def\action#1\par{\par\bigskip\noindent\textit{#1}\par}
\begin{document}
\Tom
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\action
This is the action line to put into the new text
\Mary
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\end{document}

Alternative, but \action<text> must be followed either by a blank line or one among \Tom or \Mary.

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,draft]{report}
\newcommand\Tom{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\makebox[35mm][l]{Tom}\hangindent=35mm
}
\newcommand\Mary{%
  \par\bigskip\noindent\makebox[35mm][l]{Mary}\hangindent=35mm
}
\makeatletter
\newcommand\action{%
  \begingroup
  \par\bigskip\noindent\itshape
  \def\par{\endgroup@@par}%
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\Tom
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\action
This is the action line to put into the new text
\Mary
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem
Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
\end{document}

Thank you Prof! This is really what I needed! – Andy Toff Dec 15 '20 at 11:05 — Andy Toff, Dec 15 '20 at 11:05

New command to turn to italics

1 Answers1