General ⇒ Reduce the space between the text and equation

[curiouslearn]

The denizens of this great forum,

I want to reduce the space between text and a multiline equation following it. I am using the setspace package and I need doublespacing for the text. It seems that with the \doublespacing command, the \vspace{-2ex} or so does not work. The following is a minimum working example.

Thanks for your help.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsthm}
\usepackage{mdwlist}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{showkeys} %To see labels (of equations, proof and lemma numbers) when working on a draft.
\usepackage{paralist}% Package that allows different types of lists such as in paragraph lists.
\usepackage{pdfsync}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage[margin=1in,left=1.2in]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}
\def\sm{\scriptscriptstyle}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
 \doublespacing    

	We need to decrease the space between this line and the one below. With the doublespacing in the text it seems the vspace command is ineffective.
	\begin{multline}
		\Pr(\text{D appeal|D loss})  = \\ \frac{ r t_{10} F_{\sm D}(EG_{\sm D}^{\sm 0} + (a_{00} - a_{01}) \delta_{0} (\Delta H) ) + (1-r) t_{11} F_{\sm D}(EG_{\sm D}^{\sm 1} + (a_{00} - a_{01}) \delta_{1} (\Delta H)) }{ r t_{10} + (1-r) t_{11} }  
	\end{multline}
  This is the text following the equation. The space here is okay. It is the one before the  equation that I want to reduce.

\end{document}             

When I insert \vspace{-1ex} between the line ending with the word "ineffective." and the line starting with "\begin{multline}", the spacing does not change.

[gmedina]

Hi,

the rubber lengths \abovedisplayskip and \belowdisplayskip control the vertical spaces before and after a display environment, resp. For your document settings they both have a value of 12.0pt plus 3.0pt minus 7.0pt.

You could try something like

Code: Select all

\setlength\abovedisplayskip{0pt}

[curiouslearn]

Thanks gmedina. That worked very well. I have two questions:

(1) If I write the \setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{xpt}, does that give me the space between two text lines plus xpts? With 0pt, there is some space, and visually it seems that the space is the same as that between two text lines.
(2) If I enter the \setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{xpt} command in the middle of the document, but then want to change back again to the default, after a few lines, do I have to manually enter the measurements, 12.0pt plus 3.0pt minus 7.0pt, in a new \setlength command or is there another option?

gmedina, how did you figure out what the settings were in my document?

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

[gmedina]

Hi curiouslearn,

...
(1) If I write the \setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{xpt}, does that give me the space between two text lines plus xpts?

Yes. You can find a description of those lengths and their similar ones (\abovedisplayshortskip, \belowdisplayshortskip) as well as of the mechanism that TeX uses to build displayed expressions in the excellent book TeX by topic by Victor Eijkhout.

In fact, since those lengths are rubber lengths, I think that using something like 0pt plus 2pt can be a better choice than just a rigid 0pt.

...(2) If I enter the \setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{xpt} command in the middle of the document, but then want to change back again to the default, after a few lines, do I have to manually enter the measurements, 12.0pt plus 3.0pt minus 7.0pt, in a new \setlength command or is there another option?

That could be an option; however, you can confine the change to a particular locality using the grouping mechanism (also explained in the mentioned book). This can be done, for example, in the following way:

Code: Select all

\begingroup
\setlength\abovedisplayskip{0pt}
   \begin{multline}
  \Pr(\text{D appeal|D loss})  = \\ \frac{ r t_{10} F_{\sm D}(EG_{\sm D}^{\sm 0} + (a_{00} - a_{01}) \delta_{0} (\Delta H) ) + (1-r) t_{11} F_{\sm D}(EG_{\sm D}^{\sm 1} + (a_{00} - a_{01}) \delta_{1} (\Delta H)) }{ r t_{10} + (1-r) t_{11} } 
   \end{multline}
\endgroup

...
gmedina, how did you figure out what the settings were in my document?

By using the TeX primitive \the. I wrote

Code: Select all

\the\abovedisplayskip \the\abovedisplayskip

in the body of your code to get the values after compilation.

[curiouslearn]

Thanks very much gmedina. This is all new and useful information for me.