Footer in a colored box -- here's how

[Steve Litt]

Hi all,

I wanted the footers in my book to look just like those in the other ebooks, 
complete with a colored box footer. The "MAGIC NUMBER" is designed so that no 
matter how one sets the top and bottom margins, or the header or footer 
separations, the footer still ends up in the same place. Here's how:

\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{rust}{rgb}{0.7,0.2,0.2}
\definecolor{lightgray}{rgb}{0.8,0.8,0.8}

\newcommand{\myfootertext}{This is my book}

\newlength{\boxdrop}
\setlength{\boxdrop}{11in} % PAPER LENGTH
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-1.7in}  % MAGIC NUMBER
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-\headsep}
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-\headheight}
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-\topmargin}
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-\textheight}
\addtolength{\boxdrop}{-\footskip}

\newcommand{\myfooter}{%
        \fancyfoot[CE,CO]{
        ~\\[\boxdrop]\fcolorbox{black}{rust}{
                \parbox[c][.6in][t]{\textwidth}{
                        ~\\[-0.3in]
                        \center
                        \footnotesize
                        \sffamily
                        \bfseries
                        \textcolor{lightgray}{\myfootertext}
                        }
                }
        }
}


Then, you can invoke this just by putting this command in your LyX document 
preamble:

\myfooter


SteveT