# [texhax] How to use a created box's dimensions to place subsequent text?

W. Craig Carter ccarter at mit.edu
Fri Jan 13 20:47:53 CET 2006

Hello,

I am trying to do something fairly simple (I think) but am
becoming bit impatient with the tex manuals. Can anyone get me on
the right track?

I want a command such as \setover{text text text}{b}, similar to
\underbrace{}{}, but in paragraph mode. "text text text" should be
in an \hbox at the same height as the current line, and "b" should
be centered below "text text text"  It would also be nice to have
the option of putting at "\upbracefill" between the "text text text"
and the "b."

I started by hacking the \upperbrace definition, but am getting
nowhere...

Should I be using a \parbox-\savebox-usebox construction from LaTeX
(if so, how do I get the box dimensions to place text?), or should I
be using \vbox{\hbox{}\upbracefill\hbox{}}. If so I need to \kern
according to size of boxes...

If I only had a working version to improve!

Thanks,

C Carter