How to prevent column break in multicols environment

Question

I am typesetting a simple songbook and would like some songs to be displayed in two columns (I use the multicol package). However, I would like to prevent inserting a columnbreak within a stanza. It would be great to have something like a samecol environment.

I tried to apply hints from Prevent column break in multicolumn index, but it didn't yield the expected result.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Couldn't \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}...\end{minipage} serve as a samecol environment? — cgnieder, Jul 14 '12 at 10:39
Thanks for both suggestions. minipage works, of course with its usual drawbacks. samepage doesn't work. — mac-p, Jul 23 '12 at 19:11
I want this question to be answered correctly. I have a MWE. What is the best way for me to share my MWE? Should I start a new question? — ahorn, Jul 13 '16 at 19:43
@ahorn: Post it to Pastebin and then add the link to this post. I assume your setup is similar to the question? — Werner, Jul 13 '16 at 19:50
http://pastebin.com/T6K6pNwG @Werner, yes, I have exactly the same question. — ahorn, Jul 13 '16 at 19:53
I want to find a solution that isn't time-consuming to type in, because there are hundreds of songs in my song book. — ahorn, Jul 13 '16 at 20:10

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 23 '12 at 21:02

10

I found the answer accidentally, while looking for something else. In order to prevent column break within a stanza I mark line ends with \\* instead of \\. Example:

\begin{multicols}{2}
  \begin{verse}       
     I heard, I heard, the old man say,\\*
     John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!\\*
     Today, today is a holiday,\\*
     John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!

     Tu-lai-ay, Oh! Tu-lai-ay!\\*
     John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!
  \end{verse} 
 \end{multicols}

I realize this does not solve the general problem of column break prevention, but perfectly fits my needs.

answered Jul 23 '12 at 21:02

mac-p

341

Maybe you would like to accept your own answer! Relevant discussions: I accepted my answer to own question: Own answers should be possible to be accepted after some(?) votes of commited tex.se users and Accept Your Own Answers. – Nikos Alexandris Oct 01 '12 at 00:10
didn't work for me, at least for a verbatim block :( – Sridhar Sarnobat Jun 02 '23 at 17:36

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '12 at 11:23

6

I suggest you take a look at the needspace package and its macro \Needspace{}. This macro should be invoked with the number of lines that need to be kept together, expressed in multiples of \baselineskip. Thus, \Needspace{5\baselineskip} will keep the next five lines together by forcing a column break, if necessary, before the start of the stanza. Note that it should only be used between paragraphs (stanzas).

answered Jul 14 '12 at 11:23

Mico

506,678

Thank you for the answer. However, it doesn't work. Maybe due to the fact that inside multicol environment I put theverse environment. – mac-p Jul 23 '12 at 19:08
1

@mac-p - thanks for this feedback. Please consider editing your question to include a more specific description; providing a full MWE (minimum working example) that reproduces the problem in question would be especially helpful. Hopefully, having this additional information will help me and/or others figure out a solution. – Mico Jul 23 '12 at 19:21

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 13 '16 at 21:13

1

I have found a solution that works for me, although the factor that \linewidth needs to be multiplied by may need to be adjusted in different situations:

Put

\newenvironment{stanza}
   {\begin{minipage}{1.1\linewidth} \begin{verse}}
   {\end{verse} \end{minipage}}

in the preamble, and use the stanza environment for the stanzas that are troublesome.

answered Jul 13 '16 at 21:13

ahorn

673

Well, it's the first time I'm not going to award a bounty. – ahorn Jul 20 '16 at 17:26

How to prevent column break in multicols environment

3 Answers3

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