[texhax] Pretty easy Question about \vspace and \paragraph

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2012-08-29 at 10:21:02 +0900, Vladimir Lomov wrote:

 > Hello,
 > 
 > ** 阮铮 [2012-08-29 08:21:25 +0800]:
 > 
 > > Hi everyone,
 > 
 > > I am new to latex and I am trying to typesetting my homework using
 > > latex. A small problem confused me all the way.
 > 
 > welcome!
 > 
 > > Here is a small example:
 > 
 > > \documentclass{article}
 > > \begin{document}
 > > \paragraph{Hello} this is a paragraph\\
 > > \vspace{4mm}
 > > something here\\
 > > some other things here\\
 > > \end{document}
 > 
 > 
 > > When I compiled the code above, the \vspace does not show its
 > > effect on the direct following paragraph. "something here" still
 > > closely located with above paragraph. Can anybody tell me why? Or
 > > is there any method to make more space between the paragraph and
 > > "something here".
 > 
 > You have to read some manual before act and ask questions, like
 > "Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX", if you have TeX Live
 > installed run 'texdoc lshort' there you will find section 6.3.4
 > Vertical Space. Read it!

阮铮 obviously read something about LaTeX, how else could he produce the
file? 

Your proposal has no effect.  Well, a paragraph ends at an empty line.
\\ doesn't end a paragraph, hence TeX is still in horizontal mode
where \vspace has no effect.

You can use \vspace only in vertical mode, i.e. between paragraphs.

Regarding \vspace*, Vladimir, please read the documentation yourself.
\vspace* should be avioded.  It's probably a last resort in some
situations.

阮铮, please avoid manual line breaks (\\).  Insert an empty line
at the end of each paragraph.  \vspace is taken into account then. 

  \paragraph{Hello} this is a paragraph

  \vspace{4mm}
  something here

阮铮, who told you to use \\ at all?  I ask because I've seen many
beginners who used \\ at the end of each line.  I'm wondering where
this suggestion comes from.

Regards,
  Reinhard

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