Latex Poster Presentation (Landscape), problems with wrapping text around figure

Question

I need help concerning a LaTeX poster presentation (using the 'Landscape' template) with a 4-column layout (see attached picture). Instead of using columns 2 and 3 separately, I am using them as one big column for my main part. The problem is, that I need to separate them again as I want to insert a figure and nicely wrap the text around it - in a two-column style (see attached picture). I tried the following procedure

\begin{columns}[t,totalwidth=\twocolwid]
\begin{column}{\onecolwid}\vspace{-.6in}  
\begin{block}
... 

but this just leaves this gray, horizontal separating line, above the text located to the left of the image (as illustrated by a dark gray box).

Moreover, when I just try to use the following idea:

\begin{columns}[T]
\begin{column}{.6\textwidth} 
...
\begin{column}{.4\textwidth}

the text that should be to the left to my image is in bold (can't be changed with \textnormal etc.)

Maybe you guys have some ideas,

Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Many thanks for your answers... I also mentioned the authors of this template in the heading, as I did not come up with this one.

% Jacobs Landscape Poster
% LaTeX Template
% Version 1.1 (14/06/14)
% Created by:
% Computational Physics and Biophysics Group, Jacobs University
% Further modified by:
% Nathaniel Johnston
%
% Further changes by myself to create a MWE
%
% This template has been downloaded from:
% http://www.LaTeXTemplates.com
% License:
% CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\documentclass[final]{beamer}

\usepackage[scale=1.24]{beamerposter}

\usetheme{confposter}

\newlength{\sepwid}
\newlength{\onecolwid}
\newlength{\twocolwid}
\newlength{\threecolwid}
\setlength{\paperwidth}{48in}
\setlength{\paperheight}{36in}
\setlength{\sepwid}{0.024\paperwidth}
\setlength{\onecolwid}{0.22\paperwidth}
\setlength{\twocolwid}{0.464\paperwidth}
\setlength{\threecolwid}{0.708\paperwidth}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.5in}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs} 

\title{Title} 

\author{Author}

\institute{Institute}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}

\addtobeamertemplate{block end}{}{\vspace*{2ex}}

\setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{2ex}
\setlength\belowdisplayshortskip{2ex}

\begin{frame}[t] 

\begin{columns}[t]

\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%First Column%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{column}{\onecolwid}

\begin{block}{Blockone}
Some text.
\end{block}

\begin{block}{Blocktwo}
Some text.
\end{block}

\end{column}

\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Columns 2 and 3%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{column}{\twocolwid}

\begin{column}{\twocolwid}\vspace{-.6in}

\begin{block}{Newblockone}
Some text.\\
\end{block}

\end{column}

\begin{columns}[t,totalwidth=\twocolwid]

\begin{column}{\onecolwid}\vspace{-.6in}

%%%%%%%%%%%%'Critical block'%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{block}
Some text that should be to the left of the figure
\end{block}

\end{column}

\begin{column}{\onecolwid}\vspace{-.6in}

\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{example.jpg}
\end{figure}

\end{column} 

\end{columns}

\begin{column}{\onecolwid}\vspace{-.6in}

\end{column}

\end{column}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Fourth column%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}

\begin{column}{\onecolwid}

\begin{block}{Newblock}
Some Text.
\end{block}

\end{column}

\end{columns}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 2

The horizontal line appears at the top of a block environment, not a column (as defined in beamerthemeconfposter.sty), so you could place both the text and figure inside minipages within a single block environment.

\documentclass[final]{beamer}
\usepackage[scale=1.24]{beamerposter}
\usetheme{confposter}

\newlength{\sepwid}
\newlength{\onecolwid}
\newlength{\twocolwid}
\newlength{\threecolwid}
\setlength{\paperwidth}{48in}
\setlength{\paperheight}{36in}
\setlength{\sepwid}{0.024\paperwidth}
\setlength{\onecolwid}{0.22\paperwidth}
\setlength{\twocolwid}{0.464\paperwidth}
\setlength{\threecolwid}{0.708\paperwidth}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.5in}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs} 
\usepackage{lipsum}

\title{Title} 
\author{Author}
\institute{Institute}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{document}
\addtobeamertemplate{block end}{}{\vspace*{2ex}}
\setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{2ex}
\setlength\belowdisplayshortskip{2ex}

\begin{frame}[t] 
\begin{columns}[t]
\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%First Column%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{column}{\onecolwid}
\begin{block}{Blockone}
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{block}

\begin{block}{Blocktwo}
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Columns 2 and 3%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{column}{\twocolwid}
\begin{column}{\twocolwid}\vspace{-.6in}
\begin{block}{Newblockone}
\lipsum[1-6]
\end{block}
\end{column}

\begin{columns}[t,totalwidth=\twocolwid]
\begin{column}{\twocolwid}\vspace{-.6in}
%%%%%%%%%%%%'Critical block'%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{block}{}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.5\linewidth}
\lipsum[1-2]
\end{minipage}%
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.45\linewidth}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{example-image}
\caption{Figure}
\end{figure}
\end{minipage}
\end{block}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{column}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%Fourth column%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\begin{column}{\sepwid}\end{column}
\begin{column}{\onecolwid}
\begin{block}{Newblock}
\lipsum[1-5]
\end{block}
\end{column}
\end{columns}

\end{frame}
\end{document}