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From: kuo@skatter.UUCP (Dr. Peter Kuo)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: A TeX beginner's question
Message-ID: <338@skatter.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Sep-87 19:59:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: skatter.338
Posted: Fri Sep 18 19:59:43 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Sep-87 22:56:22 EDT
References: <430@ecrcvax.UUCP>
Organization: Accelerator Lab, Saskatoon, Sask.
Lines: 52
Summary: try this

In article <430@ecrcvax.UUCP>, andy@ecrcvax.UUCP (Andrew Dwelly) writes:
$ 
$ I recently started using TeX on a Vax running 4.3, and a qms laser printer
$ for output. There are no other users here at the moment so I am posting 
$ this question to the net instead.
$ 
$ If I start a new page with a \vskip command, to move a title halfway down
$ a page, TeX seems to ignore it, and sets the title at the top of the page.
$ 
$ On the other hand if I print something and then \vskip, it works perfectly.
$ 
$ So, \eject
$     \vskip 200mm
$     Title
$ 
$ fails (eg Title is at the top of the page), but
$ 
$    \eject
$    dummy text
$    \vskip 200mm
$    Title
$ 
$ seems to work exactly as expected. What am I doing wrong ????.
$ 
$ I am away for a week, and besides I'm sure this is obvious so please mail me
$ with any answers.
$ 
$ thanks very much
$ 				Andy.

I am not sure why, but the way to do it is to use \vglue instead of \vskip.
I think the difference is in the way \vskip and \vglue are defined to TeX.
Actually, think at it now, \vskip would (possibly) mean vertical skip after
the previous material, but at the top of a page, there is NO stuff to skip
from, so to speak. The page is not formed until it is \shipout.
This works fine for me for both VMS and PC TeX's.

... Peter/
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Disclaimer: I don't know what I am saying, I'm only a physicist.
            Don't quote me on anything! I speak only for myself.