How can I place a one-column-abstract and after that two-column-section in a LaTeX template?
[Tex/LaTex] How to place a one-column-abstract in a two-column document
abstracttwo-column
Related Solutions
You could just insert a \bigskip between the abstract and your first section. If this is not enough, add some more \bigskips. One \bigskip is "worth" 12pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink). If you want less space, issuing a \medskip is 1/2 a \bigskip at 6pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink). And then there's \smallskip which is 1/2 a \medskip at 3pt by default (plus/minus some stretch/shrink).
Alternatively, issuing a \vspace{<len>} (with an optional *) should also do the trick, where <len> is some TeX length (like 1cm, say). More information on the \vspace command is available on TeXBlog.
The above additions to your code is manual, and therefore viable as a one-time use. However, it is also possible to (say) patch the abstract environment to automatically append a larger skip once it's done.
Edit: I assume your twocolumn document configuration stems from: How can I place a one-column-abstract in a two-column document? In this case the use of \vspace does not provide any effective solution (nor does \...skip which is defined in terms of \vspace). I would suggest using the multicols environment provided by the multicol package, and use in your document in the following way:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\usepackage{multicol}% http://ctan.org/pkg/multicol
\begin{document}
\begin{abstract}
\lipsum[1]
\end{abstract}
\vspace{2cm}% Additional space between abstract & rest of document
\begin{multicols}{2}
\section{First section}
\lipsum[2-4]
\section{Second section}
\lipsum[5-7]
\section{Last section}
\lipsum[8-10]
\end{multicols}
\end{document}
If you need more than two columns, modify the mandatory { } argument of \multicols. In the above example, the geometry package provides a means to modify the page layout/dimensions (I set the text margins to be 2cm from the page border using margin=2cm), while the lipsum package provides dummy text.
You can copy the following code as a file long2.sty, place it in your document folder, and then use it as shown below:
%%
%% This is file `long2.sty'.
%%
%% Author: Tomas "tohecz" Hejda <tohecz@gmail.com>
%%
%% Licenced under LaTeX-Project Public License version 1.3 or newer.
%%
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1995/06/01]
\ProvidesPackage{long2}[2012/08/19 v0.1 long2: breakable one-column preamble in a two-column document]
\newlength\longtwo@top
\newlength\longtwo@bottom
\newsavebox\longtwo@box
\def\longtwo@repeat{%
\longtwo@column[{\@twocolumnfalse
\ifdim\ht\longtwo@box>1.00\textheight%1
\begingroup
\vbadness10000
\setbox0\vsplit\longtwo@box to 1.00\textheight%1
\setbox1\vbox{\unvbox\longtwo@box}
\global\setbox\longtwo@box\vbox{\unvbox1}
\setbox2\vbox to \textheight{%
\unvbox0
}
\ht2=0.9\textheight
\box2
\endgroup
\else
\ifdim\ht\longtwo@box>0.84\textheight
\global\let\longtwo@repeat\clearpage
\else
\global\let\longtwo@repeat\relax
\fi
\unvbox\longtwo@box
\vspace{15pt plus 15pt}
\fi
}]%
\longtwo@repeat
}
\long\def\longtwo@[#1]{%
\begingroup
\let\longtwo@column\twocolumn
\let\longtwo@mkttl\maketitle
\def\maketitle{
\begingroup
\let\newpage\relax
\longtwo@mkttl
\endgroup
}
\longtwo@column[{\@twocolumnfalse
\global\setbox\longtwo@box\vbox{#1}%
\ifdim\ht\longtwo@box>\textheight
\begingroup
\vbadness10000
\setbox0\vsplit\longtwo@box to 1.00\textheight%1
\setbox1\vbox{\unvbox\longtwo@box}%
\global\setbox\longtwo@box\vbox{\unvbox1}%
\setbox2\vbox to \textheight{%
\unvbox0
}
\ht2=0.9\textheight
\box2
\endgroup
\else
\ifdim\ht\longtwo@box>0.87\textheight
\global\let\longtwo@repeat\clearpage
\else
\global\let\longtwo@repeat\relax
\fi
\unvbox\longtwo@box
\fi
}]%
\longtwo@repeat
\endgroup
}
\def\longtwocolumn{\@ifnextchar[\longtwo@\twocolumn}
\endinput
%%
%% End of file `long2.sty'.
%%
The document can then look like this (package lipsum and command \lipsum[x-y] are only used to produce some dummy text):
\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{long2}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\parskip0pt plus 8pt
\title{My title}
\author{My the first}
\begin{document}
\longtwocolumn[{
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
\lipsum[1-8]
\end{abstract}
\lipsum[9-15]
}]
\lipsum[16-25]
\end{document}
PS: I'm considering making it a package (after I add some features), that's why I posted a complete package file ;)
PPS: Brief introduction of the idea: We store the whole one-column part in a box, then we check whether the box is larger than a page. If yes, we \vsplit it, output the first part, and call \longtwo@repeat on the rest, which does the same again.
Best Answer
This should make the trick. Important Note: This is a copy-paste from: I've just tested it