[Tex/LaTex] Wide column text in two column latex document

Question

I am new to latex and writing paper for a journal where the text is created in two column mode. For figures and tables, I can use the {figure*} and {table*} environment and this inserts the figures and tables in the wide mode spanning the width of the document.

How can one do the same for a paragraph of text without inserting a new page in the document?

Answer 1

You can use the strip environment, from the cuted package (in the shipunov bundle):

    \documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
    \usepackage{lipsum}
    \usepackage{cuted}

    \begin{document}

    \lipsum[2]
    \begin{strip}
    \lipsum[3-4]
    \end{strip}
    \lipsum[5-8]

    \end{document}