Re: [Groff] -ms Heading Macro Margin

[Larry Kollar]

Andrew J. Piziali wrote:

>    I would like to position each level one section heading in an -ms
> document 1.75" from the top of a page.  I currently use the following
> code in a macro wrapped around .NH :
>
>     .if (\\$1 = 1) \{\
>     .  NH \\$1
>     '  ce 1
>     \&\\$2
>     .  sp 0.5i
>     .\}
>
> Any attempt to insert ".sp 1.75i" or ".sp |1.75i" is ignored.  When I
> inserted \v'1.75i' ahead of \&\\$2, the section header was positioned
> properly but the subsequent paragraph was formatted on top of it!

Are you really trying to do something like this?

        .if (\\$1 = 1) \{\
        .  bp
        .  sp |1.75i
        .  NH \\$1
        '  ce 1
        \&\\$2
        .  sp 0.5i
        .\}

I believe this is a manifestation of no-space mode, which ms uses
to suppress extra space between the header & the first line of content
on the page. The quick & cheesy way around it is to add a line
containing only \\& between the .bp & .sp lines -- this tricks groff 
into
thinking there's now content on the page, and thus disables no-space
mode.

Hope that helps!

--
Larry Kollar     k  o  l  l  a  r  @  a  l  l  t  e  l  .  n  e  t
Unix Text Processing: "UTP Revival"
http://home.alltel.net/kollar/utp/