On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 10:20, Volker Kuhlmann wrote:

> You're keen, but if it's for automated batch processing of data which
> comes from some source, choices are limited.

> Syntax, nesting, spacing, ... not too bad though. The degree of
> difficulty depends on what you want to achieve, how much this differs
> from defaults, and how well your thinking is aligned with the TeX way of
> doing things.

\textwidth does not seem to be behaving consistently.

> Bad news I'm afraid: the tabular environment is your best answer for
> aligning text portions (Jason, array only differs from tabular in that
> its cells are set in maths mode). If it spans more than one page, load a
> package from the tools bundle which modifies tabular to be breakable
> (and puts some extensions in as well).

I am getting some functionality from the tabularx and hhline packages.

> It depends on what you want to do as well. Are you trying to create a
> fill-in form with boxes for people to hand-write into? Been there, done
> that, took a long time and wants some understanding from the TeXBook [1]
> about how TeX assembles vertical material. I don't remember any packages
> specifically for this, but search the TUG package catalogue.
>
> I've done a lot of style programming in LaTeX, and there isn't a single
> or simple answer to your problem, esp as you were so far vague about it.
> I can do the job for/with you but would be asking for an hourly rate.

I've no doubt that you would be worthy of the hire but I am too stingey to 
pay.

>
> HTH,
>
> Volker
>
> [1] There is deliberately zero overlap between the TeXBook (Knuth) and
> the LaTeX Manual (Lamport), each describing different parts of the whole
> system. See the LaTeX Companion (Mittelbach et al) for a description of
> many 3rdparty packages, or search the package catalogue.

Cheers Ross Drummond

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