[texhax] LaTeX

[Morten Høgholm]

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:36:19 -0400 (EDT), Tom Schneider <toms at ncifcrf.gov>  
wrote:

> Philip:
>
>> Vertical skips are, by default, ignored at the top and bottom of pages  
>> as
>> are horizontal skips at the beginning and end of lines (for obvious
>> reasons - think about it).
> It's not obvious.  It's annoying since LaTeX refuses to do what I
> explicitly ask it to do.  To get around it I've had to resort to this
> stupid trick:
> $\;$ % invisible math space fools LaTeX into thinking something is there
> \vspace{2 cm}
> ...
> Please explain.

You snipped the two lines where Philip explained how to get a space  
that'll never disappear: \vspace*{<dimen>} and \hspace*{<dimen>} and also  
the example where he showed how to use it. It's not that LaTeX refuses to  
do what you want, it merely tries to get the best result most of the time.

Normally when you want to insert a vertical space is is not desirable to  
let it have any effect directly after a page break, else you'd just be  
getting a new page with the first 2cm blank. This may be what you want for  
a titlepage, but that is certainly not the most common behavior sought.
-- 
Morten Høgholm