[Tex/LaTex] How to create a multicol “figure”

floatsframedmulticol

I have the following, somewhat minimal, example:

 \documentclass{article}
 \usepackage{multicol}

 \begin{document}
 \begin{multicols}{2}

 \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
 \begin{framed}

 The function is
 \begin{equation*}
 F(1)
 \end{equation*}

 The negation is
 \begin{equation*}
 N(1)
 \end{equation*}

 \begin{center}
 \bf{\underline{Figure 1.}} Function
 \end{center}
 \end{framed}
 \end{minipage}

 \end{multicols}
 \end{document}

It creates a "figure" with a box around it and a caption.

There are some problems. First, I'm using the multicol package, so I'd like to do this succesfully in one column. That means changing the \textwidth value, or using something other than minipage. I thought that I might be able to use a float to do this, but I don't even know how to get floats to display text. It may again have something to do with multicol.

The main problem I have is that I can use the "framed" portion of the text to display a figure, but LaTeX tends to break the frame into two pieces, and devote an entire page to one of the pieces, which is far more space than it needs. That is how LaTeX displays this without using minipage. So I'm really wondering how I can ensure that this framed portion is not broken into pieces.

Really as a separate question, I'm wondering how I can use floats to display this also. But again, I'd really like to know how to do it without floats, first.

Best Answer

I'm not sure that I understand your question. I think you just want a full page figure. Something like this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{multicol}
\begin{document}
\begin{multicols}{2}
\begin{figure*}
\begin{framed}
The function is
\begin{equation*}
F(1)
\end{equation*}

The negation is
\begin{equation*}
N(1)
\end{equation*}
\caption{Function}
\end{framed}
\end{figure*}
\lipsum
\end{multicols}
\end{document}
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