Text Formatting ⇒ linebreak problem

[bensteph]

Hi all,

I am typesetting a book and I have an issue with the \linebreak command. Sometimes I use the minipage environment to place an image alongside some text, and the text in the minipage environment is part of a larger paragraph, so I've learned to use the \linebreak command at the end of the minipage text to stretch the last line to the margin and therefore it looks continuous with the text that comes after the minipage environment. However, now I have a new problem, which is that the \linebreak command seems to want to insert a new (blank) line after the command, so although the left-right alignment looks okay, the vertical alignment is off by a single blank line. I've tried the \vspace command but it doesn't usually do what I need it to do. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ben

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Ben,

perhaps show a small code example which shows the problem,

Stefan

[bensteph]

Here's an example of a piece of code which causes this problem. Obviously, you won't be able to see the image to the right of the initial text block, but you should be able to see the spacing problem with the text that comes after.

\noindent
\begin{minipage}{195pt}
As we will see, measurements of the distribution of scattered beam particles can lead to information about the structure or distribution of the target density $\rho(\vec{r})$. This is a remarkable fact, and is related to Fourier optics, in which the pattern of diffracted light on a screen can be used to infer information about the shape of a barrier through which the light was passed (for a review, see Appendix~\ref{ch:Fourier}). In our present example, particle beams, which are of course quantum mechanical probability waves, will be used to infer the shape of the target at which they are aimed.\linebreak
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{180pt}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[keepaspectratio,angle=90,height=.8\textheight,width=.8\textwidth]{./graphics/diffraction}
\end{center}
\end{minipage}
\noindent We begin by revisiting Rutherford scattering, but now considering a nucleus of

[CDbile]

Hi,

I don't have a direct solution to your problem but I think you should consider using the wrapfig package, which does exactly what you want in a very simpler way.