Solution to add fly leaf (blank) pages at the start and end of a LaTeX document using the BeavTeX.cls style file

Finishing up my last dissertation edits, I ran into some trouble with the BeavTeX.cls style file where it would not create a new, blank (fly leaf) page at the start and end of my document.  The solution was to add the following code before the \maketitle command:

\mbox{}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\newpage

And add the same code before \end{document}.

This however caused a blank page to appear between the early pretext pages and the Table of Contents. To fix this, I opened the BeavTeX.cls file and edited the following code:

\def\ps@toca{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS}\hfill \break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@evenhead{}
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

The code should look like this:

\def\ps@toca{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS}\hfill \break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS}\hfill \break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}} %I added this bit DVB
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

I also had to modify another area of the code which originally looked like this:

\def\tableofcontents{
\cleardoublepage
\vskip 10cm
\pagestyle{tocb}
\thispagestyle{toca}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{\@depthoftoc}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{toc}
}
}

Now it looks like this:

\def\tableofcontents{
% \cleardoublepage %switched this to a standard clear page
\clearpage %added this so it won't force two new pages if it isn't on an even page DVB
\vskip 10cm
\pagestyle{tocb}
\thispagestyle{toca}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{\@depthoftoc}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{toc}
}
}

Adding in the extra information for \evenhead{} and the \tableofcontents definition will create the proper Table of Contents header when starting on even pages. However, this spawns another problem where the List of Figures now has a blank page before it. As above, I found this code which needs to be modified:

\def\listoffigures{
\cleardoublepage
\pagestyle{lofb}
\thispagestyle{lofa}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{lof}
}
}

I modified it to look like this:

\def\listoffigures{
%\cleardoublepage %this is the problem
\clearpage %this is the solution DVB
\pagestyle{lofb}
\thispagestyle{lofa}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{lof}
}
}

This caused the “List of Figures” and “List of Figures (Continued)” headers to disappear. The code to blame is:

\def\ps@lofa{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@evenhead{}
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

\def\ps@lofb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@oddhead{}
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

It now looks like:

\def\ps@lofa{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}} %now it can start on an even page
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

\def\ps@lofb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)}\break
\flushleft\underline{Figure}\hfill\underline{Page}\break}} %now this can be on an even page
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

Of course this just moved the blank page problem to be directly in front of the “List of Tables” portion of the pretext pages. The offending code is:

\def\ps@lota{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\protect\underline{Page}\break }}
\def\@evenhead{}
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

\def\ps@lotb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES (Continued)}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\hfill\protect\underline{Page}\break }}
\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES (Continued)}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\hfill\protect\underline{Page}\break }} %this has been added in
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

Note that \evenhead{} is declared twice in the second portion of code. Why? I have no idea. The modified code is:

\def\ps@lota{\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\protect\underline{Page}\break }}
\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\protect\underline{Page}\break }} %now it can start on odd pages
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

\def\ps@lotb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES (Continued)}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\hfill\protect\underline{Page}\break }}
\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{LIST OF TABLES (Continued)}\hfil\break\strut
\rm\protect\underline{Table}\hfill
\rm\hfill\protect\underline{Page}\break }} %this has been modified for odd headers
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

I also modified the following code:

\def\listoftables{
\cleardoublepage
\pagestyle{lotb}
\thispagestyle{lota}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{lot}
}
}

The code now looks like:

\def\listoftables{
% \cleardoublepage %don't need this
\clearpage %this is what we need
\pagestyle{lotb}
\thispagestyle{lota}
{\let\footnotemark\relax % in case one is in the title
\@starttoc{lot}
}
}

That should take care of the blank-page-in-front-of-the-table-of-tables problem. These solutions can similarly be implemented for a list of appendices or any other pretext lists that have similar issues when using the BeavTeX.cls style file for an Oregon State University dissertation or thesis.

Solution for “Table of Contents (Continued)” not showing up when using the BeavTeX.cls style file in LaTeX

I am currently finishing up final edits on my dissertation and ran across an issue with the BeavTeX.cls style file that grad students have been using at Oregon State University to publish their dissertations for many years.  After the first page of a multi-page table of contets, every other page of the table of contents was missing its header.  I opened up the BeavTeX.cls file and found the following lines of code:

\def\ps@tocb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)}\hfil\break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@oddhead{}
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

The problem originates in the \def@oddhead{} where the odd headers are defined to be blank. I fixed the issue by copying the contents of the even headers into the odd header definition. The code snippet now looks like:

\def\ps@tocb{\def\@evenhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)}\hfil\break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}}
\def\@oddhead{\vbox to \headheight{
\centerline{TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued)}\hfil\break
\rm\flushright\protect\underline{Page}\break}} %added this stuff in
\def\@oddfoot{}
\def\@evenfoot{}
}

Hopefully this will help out a few fellow Beavers as they wrap up edits to their dissertations and theses.