The UK TeX FAQ

sty : macros/latex/contrib/abstract memoir.cls :macros/latex/contrib/memoir 208 Really blank pages betweenchapters If you’re using the standard classes, youneed to take special action; the memoirclass and the Koma-Script classes providetheir own support for this — see below.Book (by default) and report (withopenright class option) ensure thateach chapter starts on a right-hand(recto) page; they do this by insertinga \cleardoublepage command betweenchapters (rather than a mere \clearpage).The empty page thus created gets to have anormal running header, which some peopledon’t like.The (excellent) fancyhdr man-ual covers this issue, basically ad-vising the creation of a command\clearemptydoublepage: \let\origdoublepage\cleardoublepage\newcommand{\clearemptydoublepage}{%\clearpage{\pagestyle{empty}\origdoublepage}%} The “obvious” thing is then to use this com-mand to replace \cleardoublepage ina patched version of the \chapter com-mand. (Make a package of your owncontaining a copy of the command outof the class.) This isn’t particularly dif-ficult, but you can instead simply sub-vert \cleardoublepage (which isn’t often used elsewhere): \let\cleardoublepage\clearemptydoublepage Note: this command works because\clearemptydoublepage uses a copyof \cleardoublepage: instructions onmacro programming patching techniques explain the problem and why this is a solu-tion.The emptypage package does this sortof thing for you; all you need do is loadthe package, and it does the rest.The KOMA-Script replace-ments for the book and reportclasses (scrbook and scrreprt offersclass options cleardoubleempty,cleardoubleplain and cleardoublestandard(using the running page style, as normal)that control the appearance of these emptypages. The clas es also offer do-it-yourselfcommands \cleardoubleempty (etc.). The memoir class (and thenextpage package) provide com-mands \cleartooddpage and\cleartoevenpage, which both takean optional argument (the first, withno argument, being an equivalentof \cleardoublepage). One canachieve ‘special’ effects by puttingcommands in the optional argu-ment: the \clearemptydoublepagewe’re after would be achieved by\cleartooddpage[\thispagestyle{empty}]. The commands will also serveif you want the surreal effect of “This pageintentionally left blank” in the centre of anotherwise empty page. emptypage.sty : macros/latex/contrib/emptypage fancyhdr.sty : macros/latex/contrib/fancyhdr memoir.cls :macros/latex/contrib/memoir nextpage.sty : macros/latex/contrib/misc/nextpage.sty scrbook.cls, scrrept.cls : Part ofmacros/latex/contrib/koma-script 209 Balancing columns at the end ofa document The twocolumn option of the standardclasses causes LaTeX to set the text of adocument in two columns. However, the last page of the document typically endsup with columns of different lengths —such columns are said to be “unbalanced”.Many (most?) people don’t like unbal-anced columns. The simplest solution to the problem is to use the multicol package in place ofthe twocolumn option, as multicol balancesthe columns on the final page by default.However, the use of multicol does comeat a cost: its special output routine disal-lows the use of in-column floats, though itdoes still permit full-width (e.g., figure*environment) floats. As a result, there is a constant push fora means of balancing columns at the endof a twocolumn document. Of course, thejob can be done manually: \pagebreakinserted at the appropriate place on the lastpage can often produce the right effect, butthis seldom appeals, and if the last page ismade up of automatically-generated text