This file is part of the multicol package. ------------------------------------------ \def\filedate{92/08/17} This file contains problem-records and bug-reports. Unsolved problems and uncorrected but known bugs (so called features) start out with two exclamation marks before the number. Fixed problems will start with two asterisks. ** (1) FMi 90/05/17: Barbara Beeton reported an extra blank line on the top of a page where a multicols env. ends. The space is coming from \topskip which is inserted because the boxes produced by multicols have no height. Fixed 90/05/20: Changed \vtop to \vbox in \balance@columns. This made v1.3a because this bug was a bad one. ** (2) FMi 90/08/14: Cameron Smith reported that \multicolsep is always added in full, because of the \penalty 0 coming from \enough@room. Fixed 90/10/09: Changed \penalty to \addpenalty in two places. ** (3) FMi 90/08/26: Bogus{\l}aw Jackowski suggested to suppress the `Footnotes on page ...' warning, if no footnotes are present. Added 91/02/17 to version 1.3c. ** (4) FMi 90/10/01: Reinhard Wonneberger reported that \begin{multicols}{1} doesn't work. Fixed 90/10/09: Case not longer allowed. This might change later on again. ** (5) FMi 90/11/19: If a full or nearly full page is balanced, that contains a lot of shrinkable glue, overfull vboxes during the output routine might happen, since the shrinkability is not taken into account inside the balancing routine. Temp. fix: insert a hard \newpage or \pagebreak[3] at a suitable spot. Fixed 91/03/03 in v1.3c. There might be still some situations where it is necessary to break by hand. ** (6) FMi 91/02/28: Cameron Smith reported that in certain situations some columns seem to be one line shorter then others. This is actually not a bug but depends on parameter settings for the document. If there is absolutely no vertical stretchability in a column, the column will not be bottom aligned. Correction: Ensure that your document styles adds enough vertical stretch by making certain parameters (e.g. \parskip) stretchable. !! (7) FMi 91/03/03: If footnotes are split on a page where balancing is done, desaster might happen. This problem will show up only in very special situations and so far nobody seems to have run into it. It is partly the result of using \insert. Fix: one case is fixed in v1.3c but the general solution will have to wait until multicol gets rewritten for LaTeX3. ** (8) FMi 91/03/03: \raggedcolumns only affected the last page of a multicols environment. Fixed: 91/03/03 in v1.3c. While this was documented correctly I decided that it would be better get the same effect on all pages. ** (9) JEg 91/03/17: If closing end tags are missing inside a multicolumn environment, the error report mentioned the wrong environment (namely multicols). Fixed 91/03/20 in v1.3c. There is no perfect fix for it. LaTeX now reports the correct environment but later runs into a second error. LaTeX3 will hopefully deal with such situations. As consequence of the fix it isn't longer allowed to use \multicols and \endmulticols inside other environment definitions. Instead one has to say \begin{multicols} ... \end{multicols} which might turn out to be a nuisense. ** (10) MBa 91/08: The result of \botmark might be incorrect since multicol may consider more material then finally necessary for the constructed page. FMi 92/02/14: fixed in version 1.4a. This fix does not include \topmark which still may come out wrong, but isn't used by LaTeX. ** (11) MBa 91/08: If multicol has to balance material with a huge height, e.g. constructed from \parbox'es, the balancing may fail due to some problems with TeX's \vsplit primitive. FMi 92/02/14: fixed in version 1.4a. ** (12) CRo 91/11: Call to \enough@room is done without surrounding the argument with braces. This does not allow to specify minimal above space directly, i.e., without a parameter. FMi 92/02/14: fixed in version 1.4a. ** (13) ASa 92/02/12: The result of \firstmark might be wrong on a page where a multicols environment starts and continues over the page boundary. Marks preceding the environment will not be considered. FMi 92/02/14: fixed in version 1.4a. ** (14) FMi 92/03/04: The starting value for balancing columns is now computed with a new algorithm that slightly improves the balancing. Implemented in v1.4d ** (15) DCa 92/03/12: In certain situations when multicols was preceded by a \section command, the section could appear on a page by itself. This is a consequence of the correction to bug (2). Note however, that it is generally better to put \section commands inside the optional argument of multicols. FMi 92/03/16: fixed in version 1.4e. !! (16) FMi 92/03/16: When the material in the optional argument is larger then the \premulticols or its local environment value (second optional argument) then multicols may run into an error. Not sure whether I fix this beside pointing out the correction for the source file in the error message. ** (17) CRo 92/03/06: Typeset the optional first argument within a local group so that it behaves similar to \twocolumn[...] (which is a float internally). FMi 92/03/16: suggestion added in version 1.4e. ** (18) CRo 92/03/06: Setting of \pretolerance should not be prohibit in all case as one my want to use multicols for example on landscape paper, etc. FMi 92/03/20: suggestion added in version 1.4e. New designer parameter is called \multicolspretolerance ** FMi 92/03/16: The version 1.4 includes several enhancements: a new balancing algorithm, the possibility to use multicols anywhere (e.g. in floats), a hopefully correct handling of LaTeX marks. The handling of stared floats, e.g. figure*, was improved to allow for float pages within the multicols environment. ** (19) PAb 92/04/26: Floats within the multicols environment that have been placed on top of the next page with older releases, now sometimes come out centered on a page by itself. FMi 92/04/26: this is due to the new ability of multicols to produce standard LaTeX float pages. To achieve the old behavior it is necessary to \renewcommand \floatpagefraction to a larger value (the default .5) is horrible anyway. !! (20) FMi 92/04/19: When the last line of a column contains an unusal large character (like $\langle$) and the page contains a footnote then one may get a slightly overfull \vbox in the output routine. This depends on the parameter setting for \skip\footnoteins and some other things. !! (21) DCa 92/06/25: When more than 5 columns are used by multicol we overwrite some already allocated box registers (for example a \strut won't work any longer. FMi 92/06/27: Temp fix: disallow more than 5 columns (v.1.4k) real fix will follow. ** (22) PBe 92/08/14: An indented environment like enumerate inside multicols broken across a page would incorrectly move the whole multicols to the right. FMi 92/08/17: fixed in 1.4l. ** (23) ???: A completely empty multicols environment removed all preceding text on the current page. FMi 92/09/04: This was long known and after seeing the complicated work-around that Silvio Levy had to do in his geom documentation I thought I better fix this: fixed in 1.4m. The good guys: PAb Peter Abbott PBe Peter Beckmann MBa Michael Barr DCa David Carlisle JEg Juergen Egeling FMi Frank Mittelbach CRo Chris Rowley ASa Alexander Samarin