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From: irv@cwi.nl (Irv Elshoff)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Wanted: Single and double columns on same page in LaTeX
Message-ID: <3292@charon.cwi.nl>
Date: 9 Apr 91 14:58:53 GMT
Sender: news@cwi.nl
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 46
Originator: irv@zeelt.cwi.nl

Greetings.

I would like to create a LaTeX document that contains
both single and double-column text on the same page.
For example, something that looks like:

	+--------------------+
	|  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
	|                    |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|                    |
	|  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  |
	|                    |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	|  xxxxxxx  xxxxxxx  |
	+--------------------+

Furthermore, I would like the text in the double-column
parts to be automatically balanced, i.e., the bottoms of
both columns should lie in a horizontal line (I accept
the fact that the right-hand column might have to be one
line shorter.)

I have tried to do this using the minipage environment,
parboxes, the twocolumn style, and the twocolumn
directive, in various combinations, and all to no avail.
I keep getting unbalanced columns in two-column mode,
unwanted page breaks (no amount of \nopagebreak-ing seems
to help) very long columns, and a right-hand column
overlaying a page of one-column text.  In short, a real
mess.

Does anyone know how to do what I want?  I would be very
grateful for any help.

Cheers,
	I.J.P. Elshoff		(irv@cwi.nl)
	Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science
	Amsterdam