Cfrgtkky

I have been wondering "how to get shaded box for section numbers only"?
Also, How to get grey square in between left mark and page number in the header? In code below I can get solid black square.
I have attached image below of the desired output. This example is from TUGINDIA tutorials.

   documentclass[12pt,twoside]{report}

    usepackage{titlesec}%for formatting chapter position and names



    titleformat{chapter}[display]

    {normalfonthugebfseries}{chaptertitlename thechapter}{0pt}{huge}

    titlespacing*{chapter}{0pt}{-20pt}{10pt}



     title{bf huge xxx}

     author{xxx}

     date{}   %to disable date

     usepackage[top=1.3in, left=1.5in, right=1in]{geometry} %for setting margins

     usepackage{grffile}  %to avoid showing path of figure inserted

     includeonly{chap1/chapter_1}





    titlelabel{llap{thetitlequad}}% for section headings in margins



     usepackage{fancyhdr}

    pagestyle{fancy}

    newcommand{helv}{%

     fontfamily{phv}fontseries{}fontsize{10}{12}selectfont}

     renewcommand{chaptermark}[1]{markboth{#1}{}}%formatting chapter title

     renewcommand{sectionmark}[1]{markright{thesection. #1}}

     fancyhf{}

     fancyhead[RO]{helv rightmark{} $blacksquare$ thepage}

      fancyhead[LE]{helv thepage{} $blacksquare$ leftmark}

     renewcommand{headrulewidth}{0pt}

    usepackage{amssymb}



     parindent=0.5in

    parskip=10pt

     linespread{1.3}



     renewcommand{abstractname}{Large Abstract} %To increase Abstract font size

     begin{document}

     maketitle 

     begin{abstract}

      blahblah

     end{abstract}

     blah blah

     end{document}

Here is a way to get the Section headers with color. However, I did not spend the time to make the margins look like the example, since your question seemed focused on the box and color aspect, rather than the margin aspect.

Also, I only implemented the effect down to the subsection level, though you could follow my lead and extend it to subsubsection if you wished.

As for your question on the gray square separator by the page number, things like that are discussed here: Page number in the margin and separator

documentclass{article}

usepackage{color}

makeatletter

definecolor{sectcolor}{rgb}{0.9,0.9,0.9}

letorigsectionsection

letorigsubsectionsubsection

defthesectiontext{@arabicc@section.}

defthesubsectiontext{thesectiontext@arabicc@subsection}

globalnewsavebox{sectbox}



defmakesectbox#1{saveboxsectbox{colorbox{sectcolor}

    {makebox[0.5in][r]{normalfontlargebfseries#1}}}}



renewcommand thesection {usebox{sectbox}}

renewcommand thesubsection {usebox{sectbox}}



renewcommandsection{@ifstar{myheading}{mysection}}



newcommandmysection[1]{%

  sectprelude{section}{thesectiontext}origsection{#1}}

newcommandmyheading[1]{%

  sectprelude{section}{thesectiontext}origsection*{#1}}



renewcommandsubsection[1]{%

  sectprelude{subsection}{thesubsectiontext}origsubsection{#1}}



newcommandsectprelude[2]{%

  addtocounter{#1}{1}makesectbox{#2}addtocounter{#1}{-1}}



makeatother



begin{document}



section{Introduction}



It was a dark and stormy nightldots and then, a minute passed.



section{Discussion}



In the beginningldots



section{Conclusion}



ldots and it was good



subsection{Postscript}



Amen.



end{document}

Here's an option using the titlesec package and producing the colored boxes and the desired hanging; the example below also includes the necessary settings to produce the desired headers for the document:

documentclass{book}

usepackage[explicit]{titlesec}

usepackage{tikz}

usepackage{lipsum}

usepackage{fancyhdr}



colorlet{sectcolor}{gray!65}



newcommandgraysquare{textcolor{sectcolor}{rule{1ex}{1ex}}}

newcommand{helv}{fontfamily{phv}fontseries{}fontsize{10}{12}selectfont}



pagestyle{fancy}



renewcommand{chaptermark}[1]{markboth{#1}{}}

renewcommand{sectionmark}[1]{markright{thesection. #1}}

fancyhf{}

fancyhead[RO]{helvrightmarkhspace{0.5em}graysquarehspace{0.5em}thepage}

fancyhead[LE]{helvthepagehspace{0.5em}graysquarehspace{0.5em}leftmark}

renewcommand{headrulewidth}{0pt}



titleformat{section}

  {normalfontLargebfseries}

  {llap{colorbox{sectcolor}{makebox[3em][r]  {thesection}}hspace{1em}}}

  {0em}{#1}



begin{document}



setcounter{chapter}{1}% just for the example

section{Introduction}

A cross-reference to the last section:~ref{sec:conclusion}.

lipsum[4]

section{Discussion}

lipsum[4]

section{Conclusion}

label{sec:conclusion}

lipsum[4]



end{document}

An image of the result:

My solution changes only the formatting for the section numbers in the document body; cross-references and numbering in ToC entries will keep the standard representation.

If you use a KOMA-class you don't need any further packages:

documentclass{scrbook}



usepackage{xcolor}

usepackage{lipsum}



definecolor{sectcolor}{rgb}{0.9,0.9,0.9}

renewcommand*{othersectionlevelsformat}[3]{%

  llap{colorbox{sectcolor}{makebox[2.5em][r]{#3autodot}}quad}%

}



begin{document}

chapter{Test Chapter}

section{Introduction}

A cross-reference to the last section:~ref{sec:conclusion}.

lipsum[4]

section{Discussion}

lipsum[4]

section{Conclusion}

label{sec:conclusion}

lipsum[4]

end{document}

you simply change in to @seccntformat

e.g.,

def@seccntformat#1{colorbox{grayten}{csname the#1endcsnamequad}}