[texhax] Pretty easy Question about \vspace and \paragraph

[Vladimir Lomov]

Hello,
** Reinhard Kotucha [2012-08-29 05:29:14 +0200]:

> On 2012-08-29 at 10:21:02 +0900, Vladimir Lomov wrote:

>> Hello,

>> ** 阮铮 [2012-08-29 08:21:25 +0800]:

>>> Hi everyone,

>>> I am new to latex and I am trying to typesetting my homework using
>>> latex. A small problem confused me all the way.

>> welcome!

>>> Here is a small example:

>>> \documentclass{article}
>>> \begin{document}
>>> \paragraph{Hello} this is a paragraph\\
>>> \vspace{4mm}
>>> something here\\
>>> some other things here\\
>>> \end{document}


>>> When I compiled the code above, the \vspace does not show its
>>> effect on the direct following paragraph. "something here" still
>>> closely located with above paragraph. Can anybody tell me why? Or
>>> is there any method to make more space between the paragraph and
>>> "something here".

>> You have to read some manual before act and ask questions, like
>> "Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX", if you have TeX Live
>> installed run 'texdoc lshort' there you will find section 6.3.4
>> Vertical Space. Read it!

> 阮铮 obviously read something about LaTeX, how else could he produce the
> file? 

> Your proposal has no effect.  Well, a paragraph ends at an empty line.
> \\ doesn't end a paragraph, hence TeX is still in horizontal mode
> where \vspace has no effect.

First I suggested to read manual, my `In short' was inprecise, yes. In
similar situations I use `\\[LENGTH]'

> You can use \vspace only in vertical mode, i.e. between paragraphs.

> Regarding \vspace*, Vladimir, please read the documentation yourself.
> \vspace* should be avioded.  It's probably a last resort in some
> situations.

If one use it then it is on purpose, so that person should take into account
any side effects.

> 阮铮, please avoid manual line breaks (\\). 

\begin{center}
VERY LONG TEXT TO BE CENTERED...
\end{center}
?

> Insert an empty line at the end of each paragraph. \vspace is taken
> into account then. 

And take into account the indent.

Now I don't get you, there is line break command, `\\' which don't
change the mode (horiz. vs vert.) while `empty line' or `\par' separates
paragraphs, usually all except the first are indented.

Of course, in the example I want to show, centering long text it is
natural to use line-break than separate the text into paragraphs, imho.

>   \paragraph{Hello} this is a paragraph

>   \vspace{4mm}
>   something here

> 阮铮, who told you to use \\ at all?  I ask because I've seen many
> beginners who used \\ at the end of each line.  I'm wondering where
> this suggestion comes from.

Manually break text into lines?

> Regards,
>   Reinhard

P.S. The real question what 阮铮 try to achieve when it uses `\\' and
`\vspace'.

---
WBR, Vladimir Lomov

-- 
No rock so hard but that a little wave
May beat admission in a thousand years.
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