Cfrgtkky

Can I create a user manual with sections at the right like multi-tab?

Like this:

--
I think maybe I can template the page by tikz. (That will be very flexible if possible) so I added the tikz tag.

Here's a possible option using the background package to place the border, the tabs and the page number:

documentclass{article}

usepackage[a5paper,vmargin=2cm]{geometry}

usepackage{background}

usepackage{etoolbox}

usepackage{totcount}

usepackage{lipsum}



% to have access to the total number of sections

regtotcounter{section}



% every section starts on a new page

pretocmd{section}{clearpage}{}{}



% auxiliary lengths for the height of the frame and the width of each tab

newlengthmylen

newlengthmylena



% style for the section tabs

tikzset{tab/.style={

  text width=mylena,anchor=south,

  draw=gray,thick,rectangle,rounded corners=12pt,rotate=270,

  align=center,text height=20pt,

  text depth=25pt,inner sep=0pt,fill=gray!20,

  yshift=-18pt,font=sffamilyLARGE}}

% style for the current section tab

tikzset{selectedtab/.style={tab,color=white,fill=gray!90}}



% the page number is showed in the background material

pagestyle{empty}



AtBeginDocument{

% calculation of the width for each tab

setlengthmylen{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}

ifnumtotvalue{section}>0

setlengthmylena{dimexprmylen/totvalue{section}relax}

fi



% the main part; as background material we place the border, 

% the section (current and other) tabs and the page number 

backgroundsetup{

scale=1,

color=black,

angle=0,

opacity=1,

contents= {

  begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]

  node[inner sep=0pt,text width=thedimexprtextwidth+1.5cmrelax] 

    at (current page.center) (border) {rule{0pt}{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}};

  foreach valsection in {0,...,numexprtotvalue{section}-1relax}

  {

    node[ifnumthesection<numexprvalsection+1relax tabelse ifnumthesection>numexprvalsection+1relax tabelse selectedtabfifi,xshift=(0.5+valsection)*mylena] 

      at (border.north east) (tab-valsection) {Section thenumexprvalsection+1relax};

  }

  node[draw=gray,line width=2pt,rectangle,rounded corners=10pt,inner sep=0pt,

    text width=thedimexprtextwidth+1.5cmrelax,fill=white] 

    at (current page.center) {rule{0pt}{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}};

  node[font=LARGEsffamily,fill=white] 

    at (border.south) {makebox[3em][c]{thepage}};

end{tikzpicture}}

  }

}



begin{document}



section{Test Section One}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Two}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Three}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Four}

lipsum[2]



end{document}

The document needs to be processed three times.

If the most recent version for the background package is not available, here's the code using the syntax for version 1.0:

documentclass{article}

usepackage[a5paper,vmargin=2cm]{geometry}

usepackage{background}

usepackage{etoolbox}

usepackage{totcount}

usepackage{lipsum}



% to have access to the total number of sections

regtotcounter{section}



% every section starts on a new page

pretocmd{section}{clearpage}{}{}



% auxiliary lengths for the height of the frame and the width of each tab

newlengthmylen

newlengthmylena



% style for the section tabs

tikzset{tab/.style={

  text width=mylena,anchor=south,

  draw=gray,thick,rectangle,rounded corners=12pt,rotate=270,

  align=center,text height=20pt,

  text depth=25pt,inner sep=0pt,fill=gray!20,

  yshift=-18pt,font=sffamilyLARGE}}

% style for the current section tab

tikzset{selectedtab/.style={tab,color=white,fill=gray!90}}



% the page number is showed in the background material

pagestyle{empty}



AtBeginDocument{

% calculation of the width for each tab

setlengthmylen{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}

ifnumtotvalue{section}>0

setlengthmylena{dimexprmylen/totvalue{section}relax}

fi



% the main part; as background material we place the border, 

% the section (current and other) tabs and the page number 

SetBgScale{1}

SetBgColor{black}

SetBgAngle{0}

SetBgOpacity{1}

SetBgContents{

  begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay]

  node[inner sep=0pt,text width=thedimexprtextwidth+1.5cmrelax] 

    at (current page.center) (border) {rule{0pt}{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}};

  foreach valsection in {0,...,numexprtotvalue{section}-1relax}

  {

    node[ifnumthesection<numexprvalsection+1relax tabelse ifnumthesection>numexprvalsection+1relax tabelse selectedtabfifi,xshift=(0.5+valsection)*mylena] 

      at (border.north east) (tab-valsection) {Section thenumexprvalsection+1relax};

  }

  node[draw=gray,line width=2pt,rectangle,rounded corners=10pt,inner sep=0pt,

    text width=thedimexprtextwidth+1.5cmrelax,fill=white] 

    at (current page.center) {rule{0pt}{dimexprtextheight+2cmrelax}};

  node[font=LARGEsffamily,fill=white] 

    at (border.south) {makebox[3em][c]{thepage}};

end{tikzpicture}}

}



begin{document}



section{Test Section One}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Two}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Three}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Four}

lipsum[2]



end{document}

Here is another suggestion based on the answer of @Gonzalo Medina but using the scrlayer package to define a layer pagestyle:

documentclass{article}

usepackage[a5paper,vmargin=2cm]{geometry}

usepackage{tikz}% loads also xcolor and graphicx

usepackage{totcount}

usepackage{lipsum}% for dummy text

usepackage{etoolbox}



% to have access to the total number of sections

regtotcounter{section}



% every section starts on a new page

pretocmd{section}{clearpage}{}{}



% auxiliary length for the width of each tab

newlengthmylena



tikzset{

  tab/.style={% style for the section tabs

    text width=mylena,

    draw=gray,

    thick,

    rectangle,

    rounded corners=12pt,

    align=center,

    text width=53pt,

    inner sep=0pt,

    fill=gray!20,

    font=sffamilyLARGE,

    overlay

  },

  selectedtab/.style={% style for the current section tab

    tab,

    color=gray!90,

    text=white

  },

  pagenumber/.style={% style for the page number

    font=LARGEsffamily,

    fill=white,

    text width=3em,

    align=center

  }

}



usepackage{scrlayer}

DeclarePageStyleByLayers{border}{border.odd,border.even}

pagestyle{border}



DeclareNewLayer[

  background,

  oddpage,

  textarea,

  addvoffset=-1cm,

  addhoffset=-.75cm,

  addheight=2cm,

  addwidth=1.5cm,

  contents={%

  ifnumtotvalue{section}>0

    setlengthmylena{dimexprlayerheight/totvalue{section}relax}%

  fi

    begin{tikzpicture}

      pgfdeclarelayer{background}

      pgfsetlayers{background,main}

      node[

        draw=gray,

        fill=white,

        inner sep=0pt,

        minimum width=layerwidth-pgflinewidth,

        minimum height=layerheight-pgflinewidth,

        rounded corners=10pt,

        line width=2pt

      ](border){};

      node[pagenumber]at (border.south){thepage};

      begin{pgfonlayer}{background}

        foreach valsection in {0,...,numexprtotvalue{section}-1relax}{%

          node[

            ifnumvalue{section}<numexprvalsection+1relax 

              tab%

            else 

              ifnumvalue{section}>numexprvalsection+1relax 

                tab%

              else

                selectedtab%

              fi

            fi,

            minimum height=mylena-pgflinewidth

          ] at ([yshift=-(0.5+valsection)*mylena]border.north east)

          {%

            hspace*{25pt}rotatebox{-90}{Section thenumexprvalsection+1relax}%

          };

        }

      end{pgfonlayer}

    end{tikzpicture}%

  }

]{border.odd}



DeclareNewLayer[

  clone=border.odd,

  evenpage,

  contents={%

    begin{tikzpicture}

      node[

        draw=gray,

        fill=white,

        inner sep=0pt,

        minimum width=layerwidth-pgflinewidth,

        minimum height=layerheight-pgflinewidth,

        rounded corners=10pt,

        line width=2pt

      ](border){};

      node[pagenumber]at (border.south){thepage};

    end{tikzpicture}%

  }

]{border.even}



begin{document}

section{Test Section One}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Two}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Three}

lipsum[1-3]

section{Test Section Four}

lipsum[1-5]

end{document}

Run twice to get

As in the example above it is possible to define different layers for even an odd pages. For a twosided article

documentclass[twoside]{article}

the example above results in