Boxes

These next three commands for making LR-boxes all existed in LaTeX 2.09. They have been enhanced in two ways.

\makebox [<width>] [<pos>] {<text>}
\framebox [<width>] [<pos>] {<text>}
\savebox {<cmd>} [<width>] [<pos>] {<text>}

One small but far-reaching change for LaTeX2e is that, within the <width> argument only, four special lengths can be used. These are all dimensions of the box that would be produced by using simply \mbox{<text>}:

\heightits height above the baseline;

\depthits depth below the baseline;

\totalheightthe sum of \height and \depth;

\widthits width.

Thus, to put `hello' in the centre of a box of twice its natural width, you would use:

   \makebox[2\width]{hello}

Or you could put f into a square box, like this:

   \framebox{\makebox[\totalheight]{\itshape f\/}}

Note that it is the total width of the framed box, including the frame, which is set to \totalheight.

The other change is a new possibility for <pos>: s has been added to l and r. If <pos> is s then the text is stretched the full length of the box, making use of any `rubber lengths' (including any inter-word spaces) in the contents of the box. If no such `rubber length' is present, an `underfull box' will probably be produced.

\parbox [<pos>] [<height>] [<inner-pos>] {<width>} {<text>}
\begin{minipage} [<pos>] [<height>] [<inner-pos>] {<width>}
<text>
\end{minipage}

As for the box commands above, \height, \width, etc. may be used in the [<height>] argument to denote the natural dimensions of the box.

The <inner-pos> argument is new in LaTeX2e. It is the vertical equivalent to the <pos> argument for \makebox, etc, determining the position of <text> within the box. The <inner-pos> may be any one of t, b, c, or s, denoting top, bottom, centered, or `stretched' alignment respectively. When the <inner-pos> argument is not specified, LaTeX gives it same value as <pos> (this could be the latter's default value).

\begin{lrbox} {<cmd>}
<text>
\end{lrbox}

This is an environment which does not directly print anything. Its effect is to save the typeset <text> in the bin <cmd>. Thus it is like \sbox {<cmd>} {<text>}, except that any white space before or after the contents <text> is ignored.

This is very useful as it enables both the \verb command and the verbatim environment to be used within <text>.

It also makes it possible to define, for example, a `framed box' environment. This is done by first using this environment to save some text in a bin <cmd> and then calling \fbox{\usebox{<cmd>}}.

The following example defines an environment, called fmpage, that is a framed version of minipage.

   \newsavebox{\fmbox}
   \newenvironment{fmpage}[1]
     {\begin{lrbox}{\fmbox}\begin{minipage}{#1}}
     {\end{minipage}\end{lrbox}\fbox{\usebox{\fmbox}}}