Re: columns(ets) and itemize[columns]

[Wolfgang Schuster <schuster.wolfgang@googlemail.com>]

Am 17.05.2009 um 23:31 schrieb Alan BRASLAU:

> Hello,
>
> I just completed a "big" project making heavy use of columnset,  
> columnsetspan
> and paragraphs. Very powerful!
>
> Two questions, first:
> What is the real difference between columns and columnset?
> I am a bit confused* about their coexistence. Is this purposeful or  
> necessary
> (or is it simply historical)? Is \startcolumns simply an unnamed,  
> "default"
> columnset?

columns and columnset are two different mechanism two produce a document
with text and two or more columns. the columns mechanism is the older  
one
with limited control about the placement of figures but allows you to  
mix
one column and multicolumns text on a page. columnsets are a new version
of the column mechanism with more control about the placement of figures
and other features like spanned columns etc. (look at the manual for  
more)
and is better suited for magazine like layouts (Vit Zyka posted a few  
nice
examples a few years ago).

> (*and the wiki page needs to be clarified...)

the wiki is from users for users, feel free to correct the articles

> Second question, maybe a bug?
> \startitemize[columns] does not interact well:
> I suspect that it could or should use paragraphs internally rather  
> than
> columns so as to work within a column(set).

that's a limitation in tex, when you use the 'columns' key for itemize
the items are typeset with a \startcolumns / \stopcolumns before and
after the environment and you can nest columns /columnset environments
(a tex limitation) but in normal one column text this is not the case
and you can use multicolumn items in most cases (in a few cases
streamlayer are necessary, e.g. within framedtext) but you can

\startcolumns
\startsimplecolumns
\startitemize
\item one
\item two
...
\stopitemize
\stopsimplecolumns
\stopcolumns

Wolfgang

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