Plain TeX macros to do with text formatting ------------------------------------------- % comment & tab ~ unbreakable horizontal space (interword amount) \/ italic correction \+ start of line (left hand column) when \settabs has been used \allowbreak line can be broken at this point \baselineskip= distance between baselines of lines of text \beginsection Makes the following text a bold title. Must be followed by a blank line or \par \bf boldface typeface \bigbreak large vertical breakable space \bigskip large vertical space \break break line at this point \bye finish off document \centerline{} center the line \char typeset character number \cleartabs clears tabs \cr end of aligned row \dag dagger sign \day current day of the month \ddag double dagger sign \dotfill fill up horizontal space with dots \dots ... \downbracefill fill up horizontal space with a downbrace \eject force page break \empty nothing \endgraf end of paragraph \endinsert cancels a \midinsert or similar \endline end a line \enskip small horizontal breakable space \enspace like enskip but unbreakable \filbreak break page and fill with blank space unless there is room for more text followed by \filbreak \folio typeset page number \footline={} line of text placed at bottom of page \footnote takes two parameters: a marker and text. Puts marker in current position in paragrah and places text at bottom of page \frenchspacing make all spaces the same regardless of punctuation \goodbreak good place for a break at the bottom of a page \halign aligns things automatically \hang indent whole paragraph by paragraph indentation amount \hbox{} unbreakable text in horizontal box \headline={} line of text put at top of every page \hglue plus minus put stretchable material on horizontal list \hskip insert horizontal space \hoffset= set horizontal offset for placement of page \hrule width height depth make a rule box in vertical mode \hrulefill fill up horizontal space with ruler \hsize= set the length of a line to dimen \hskip breakable horizontal space \it italic typeface \it\$ pound sign \item{} makes subsequent text all indented. First parameter is placed to left of indentation \itemitem same as above but with double indentation \kern unbreakable horizontal space \lbrack [ \leftarrowfill fill up horizontal space with a left pointing arrow \leftline{} put text at left of page \line{} put text in box the width of ther page \lineskip= distance between lines if \baselineskip causes lines to be too close \lineskiplimit= the value at which \lineskip is used instead of \baselineskip \llap{} put something to left of current position. Can be used to stick things in the margin \looseness= make paragraph n lines different from optimum to avoid clubs and widows \lq left quotation mark (`) \medbreak medium breakable vertical space \medskip medium vertical space \midinsert begins inserted material (e.g. figure) in the middle of a page if possible. Use in vertical mode. \month current month \moveleft shift box added to the vertical list left by \moveright shift box added to the vertical list right by \multispan{n} span n columns \narrower bring in margins by parindent \negthinspace small unbreakable negative thin space \noalign{} to insert space in tables \nobreak don't break line at this point \noindent do not indent new paragraph \nointerlineskip no space in-between this and the next line \nonfrenchspacing sophisticated spacing \nopagenumbers omit page numbers at the bottom of pages \null an empty hbox \obeylines break the output lines the same as the input lines \obeyspaces make spaces in output same as spaces in input \offinterlineskip completely turns off spaces between lines \omit miss out column of table \pageinsert puts the following vertical material on the next page \pageno= set next page to be number \par end of paragraph \parindent= change paragraph indentation \parskip= distance before first line of a new paragraph \proclaim takes two parameters (the first followed by `.') and typesets the first in bold and the next paragraph in italics. \qquad large horizontal breakable space \quad medium horizontal breakable space \raggedbottom allow variations is bottom margins to let other spacing be correct \raggedright do not right justify paragraphs \rbrack ] \rightarrowfill fill up horizontal space with right pointing arrow \rightline{} right justify the line \rlap{} put text to right of current position but do not move right \rm roman typeface \rq right quotation mark (') \sb _ \settabs\+ \cr \settabs n \columns divide line into n equal sized columns \sl slanted typeface \slash / breakable as a hypen \smallbreak small breakable vertical space \smallskip small vertical space \sp ^ \space a ` ' \span for spanning columns of a table \supereject flush out floating insertions and force page break \TeX the TeX logo \textindent{} puts following text into the indentation space at the start of a paragraph \thinspace small unbreakable horizontal space \time current time of day in minutes since midnight \tolerance= increasing number makes looser spacing acceptable \topinsert attempts to put following vertical material at top of current page or next page if this fails \tt typewriter typeface \ttraggedright special ragged right for typewriter font \underbar{} underline following text (unbreakable) \upbracefill fill up horizontal space with upward brace \valign like \halign but with columns \vglue make vertical blank space with stretch and shrinkage \voffset= set the vertical page offset \vrule width height depth make a rule box in horizontal mode \vsize= the length of the page is dimen (without footlines etc.) \vskip insert vertical space \year current year