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GROFF_MS(7)							   GROFF_MS(7)

NAME
       groff_ms - groff ms macros

SYNOPSIS
       groff -ms [ options... ] [ files... ]
       groff -m ms [ options... ] [ files... ]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  describes the GNU version of the ms macros, part of
       the groff typesetting system.  The ms macros are mostly compatible with
       the  documented behavior of the 4.3 BSD Unix ms macros (see Differences
       from troff ms below for details).   The	ms  macros  are	 suitable  for
       reports, letters, books, and technical documentation.

USAGE
       The  ms	macro package expects files to have a certain amount of struc‐
       ture.  The simplest documents can begin with a paragraph macro and con‐
       sist of text separated by paragraph macros or even blank lines.	Longer
       documents have a structure as follows:

       Document type
	      If you use the RP (report) macro at the beginning of  the	 docu‐
	      ment,  groff  prints the cover page information on its own page;
	      otherwise it prints the information on the first page with  your
	      document	text  immediately  following.	Other document formats
	      found in AT&T troff are specific to AT&T or  Berkeley,  and  are
	      not supported in groff ms.

       Format and layout
	      By setting number registers, you can change your document's type
	      (font and size), margins,	 spacing,  headers  and	 footers,  and
	      footnotes.   See	Document  control  registers  below  for  more
	      details.

       Cover page
	      A cover page consists of a title, and  optionally	 the  author's
	      name and institution, an abstract, and the date.	See Cover page
	      macros below for more details.

       Body   Following the cover page is your document.  It consists of para‐
	      graphs, headings, and lists.

       Table of contents
	      Longer  documents usually include a table of contents, which you
	      can add by placing the TC macro at the end of your document.

   Document control registers
       The following table lists the document control number  registers.   For
       the sake of consistency, set registers related to margins at the begin‐
       ning of your document, or just after the RP macro.

       Margin settings

	      Reg.	    Definition	       Effective    Default
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       PO     Page offset (left mar‐   next page    1i
		      gin)
	       LL     Line length	       next para.   6i
	       LT     Header/footer length     next para.   6i
	       HM     Top (header) margin      next page    1i

	       FM     Bottom (footer) margin   next page    1i
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Text settings

	      Reg.	    Definition	       Effective    Default
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       PS     Point size	       next para.   10p
	       VS     Line spacing (leading)   next para.   12p
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Paragraph settings

	      Reg.	    Definition		Effective    Default
	      ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       PI    Initial indent		next para.   5n
	       PD    Space between paragraphs	next para.   0.3v
	       QI    Quoted paragraph indent	next para.   5n
	      ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Footnote settings

	      Reg.     Definition	 Effective     Default
	      ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       FL    Footnote length   next footnote   LL*5/6
	       FI    Footnote indent   next footnote   2n
	       FF    Footnote format   next footnote   0
	      ─────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Other settings

	       Reg.	     Definition		Effective   Default
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       MINGW	Minimum width between	next page   2n
			columns
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

   Cover page macros
       Use the following macros to create a cover page for  your  document  in
       the order shown.

       .RP [no]
	      Specifies	 the report format for your document.  The report for‐
	      mat creates a separate cover page.   With	 no  RP	 macro,	 groff
	      prints a subset of the cover page on page 1 of your document.

	      If  you  use the optional no argument, groff prints a title page
	      but does not repeat any of the title  page  information  (title,
	      author, abstract, etc.) on page 1 of the document.

       .P1    (P-one) Prints the header on page 1.  The default is to suppress
	      the header.

       .DA [xxx]
	      (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
	      if  any,	on  the	 title page (if specified) and in the footers.
	      This is the default for nroff.

       .ND [xxx]
	      (optional) Print the current date, or the arguments to the macro
	      if any, on the title page (if specified) but not in the footers.
	      This is the default for troff.

       .TL    Specifies the document title.  Groff collects text following the
	      TL  macro	 into  the  title,  until  reaching the author name or
	      abstract.

       .AU    Specifies the author's name.  You can specify  multiple  authors
	      by using an AU macro for each author.

       .AI    Specifies	 the  author's	institution.  You can specify multiple
	      institutions.

       .AB [no]
	      Begins the abstract.  The default is to print the word ABSTRACT,
	      centered	and  in	 italics, above the text of the abstract.  The
	      option no suppresses this heading.

       .AE    End the abstract.

   Paragraphs
       Use the PP macro to create indented paragraphs, and  the	 LP  macro  to
       create paragraphs with no initial indent.

       The  QP	macro  indents	all  text at both left and right margins.  The
       effect is identical to the HTML <BLOCKQUOTE> element.  The  next	 para‐
       graph or heading returns margins to normal.

       The  XP	macro  produces	 an exdented paragraph.	 The first line of the
       paragraph begins at the left margin, and subsequent lines are  indented
       (the opposite of PP).

   Headings
       Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document.  The
       ms macros print headings in bold using the same font family  and	 point
       size as the body text.

       The following heading macros are available:

       .NH xx Numbered	heading.  The argument xx is either a numeric argument
	      to indicate the level of the heading, or S xx xx "..."   to  set
	      the  section  number  explicitly.	 If you specify heading levels
	      out of sequence, such  as	 invoking  .NH 3  after	 .NH 1,	 groff
	      prints a warning on standard error.

       .SH    Unnumbered subheading.

   Highlighting
       The  ms	macros	provide a variety of methods to highlight or emphasize
       text:

       .B [txt [post [pre]]]
	      Sets its first argument in bold type.  If you specify  a	second
	      argument,	 groff	prints	it in the previous font after the bold
	      text, with no intervening space (this allows you to set punctua‐
	      tion after the highlighted text without highlighting the punctu‐
	      ation).  Similarly, it prints the third argument (if any) in the
	      previous font before the first argument.	For example,

		     .B foo ) (

	      prints (foo).

	      If  you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text fol‐
	      lowing in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or	 head‐
	      ing macro.

       .R [txt [post [pre]]]
	      Sets its first argument in roman (or regular) type.  It operates
	      similarly to the B macro otherwise.

       .I [txt [post [pre]]]
	      Sets its first argument in italic type.  It  operates  similarly
	      to the B macro otherwise.

       .CW [txt [post [pre]]]
	      Sets  its	 first argument in a constant width face.  It operates
	      similarly to the B macro otherwise.

       .BI [txt [post [pre]]]
	      Sets its first argument in bold italic type.  It operates	 simi‐
	      larly to the B macro otherwise.

       .BX [txt]
	      Prints  its  argument and draws a box around it.	If you want to
	      box a string that contains spaces, use a digit-width space (\0).

       .UL [txt [post]]
	      Prints its first argument with an underline.  If you  specify  a
	      second  argument, groff prints it in the previous font after the
	      underlined text, with no intervening space.

       .LG    Prints all text following in larger type (2 points  larger  than
	      the  current point size) until the next font size, highlighting,
	      paragraph, or heading macro.  You can specify this macro	multi‐
	      ple times to enlarge the point size as needed.

       .SM    Prints all text following in smaller type (2 points smaller than
	      the current point size) until the next type size,	 highlighting,
	      paragraph,  or heading macro.  You can specify this macro multi‐
	      ple times to reduce the point size as needed.

       .NL    Prints all text following in the normal point size (that is, the
	      value of the PS register).

       \*{text\*}
	      Print the enclosed text as a superscript.

   Indents
       You  may need to indent sections of text.  A typical use for indents is
       to create nested lists and sublists.

       Use the RS and RE macros to start and end a section of  indented	 text,
       respectively.  The PI register controls the amount of indent.

       You  can	 nest indented sections as deeply as needed by using multiple,
       nested pairs of RS and RE.

   Lists
       The IP macro handles duties for all lists.  Its syntax is as follows:

       .IP [marker [width]]

	      The marker is usually a  bullet  character  \(bu	for  unordered
	      lists,  a number (or auto-incrementing number register) for num‐
	      bered lists, or a word or phrase for  indented  (glossary-style)
	      lists.

	      The  width  specifies the indent for the body of each list item.
	      Once specified, the indent remains the same for all  list	 items
	      in the document until specified again.

   Tab stops
       Use  the	 ta  request  to set tab stops as needed.  Use the TA macro to
       reset tabs to the default (every 5n).  You can redefine the TA macro to
       create a different set of default tab stops.

   Displays and keeps
       Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code list‐
       ings).  Displays turn off filling, so lines of code  can	 be  displayed
       as-is without inserting br requests in between each line.  Displays can
       be kept on a single page, or allowed to break across pages.   The  fol‐
       lowing table shows the display types available.

		   Display macro		Type of display
		With keep      No keep
	      ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	      .DS L	       .LD	 Left-justified.
	      .DS I [indent]   .ID	 Indented (default indent in
					 the DI register).
	      .DS B	       .BD	 Block-centered (left-justi‐
					 fied, longest line centered).
	      .DS C	       .CD	 Centered.

	      .DS R	       .RD	 Right-justified.
	      ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Use the DE macro to end any display type.

       To  keep	 text together on a page, such as a paragraph that refers to a
       table (or list, or other item) immediately following, use the KS and KE
       macros.	 The  KS  macro	 begins a block of text to be kept on a single
       page, and the KE macro ends the block.

       You can specify a floating keep using the KF and	 KE  macros.   If  the
       keep  cannot  fit  on the current page, groff holds the contents of the
       keep and allows text following the keep (in the source file) to fill in
       the remainder of the current page.  When the page breaks, whether by an
       explicit bp request or by reaching the end of the  page,	 groff	prints
       the  floating  keep  at	the  top  of the new page.  This is useful for
       printing large graphics or tables that do not need  to  appear  exactly
       where specified.

   Tables, figures, equations, and references
       The -ms macros support the standard groff preprocessors: tbl, pic, eqn,
       and refer.  Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in	 pairs
       of tags as follows:

       .TS [H] and .TE
	      Denotes  a  table, to be processed by the tbl preprocessor.  The
	      optional H argument instructs groff to create a  running	header
	      with  the	 information  up  to  the  TH macro.  Groff prints the
	      header at the beginning of the table; if	the  table  runs  onto
	      another page, groff prints the header on the next page as well.

       .PS and .PE
	      Denotes a graphic, to be processed by the pic preprocessor.  You
	      can create a pic file by hand, using the AT&T pic manual	avail‐
	      able  on	the Web as a reference, or by using a graphics program
	      such as xfig.

       .EQ [align] and .EN
	      Denotes an equation, to be processed by  the  eqn	 preprocessor.
	      The  optional  align  argument  can be C, L, or I to center (the
	      default), left-justify, or indent the equation.

       .[ and .]
	      Denotes a reference, to be processed by the refer	 preprocessor.
	      The  GNU refer(1) manual page provides a comprehensive reference
	      to the preprocessor and the format of  the  bibliographic	 data‐
	      base.

   Footnotes
       The  ms	macros	provide a flexible footnote system.  You can specify a
       numbered footnote by using the \** escape, followed by the text of  the
       footnote enclosed by FS and FE macros.

       You  can specify symbolic footnotes by placing the mark character (such
       as \(dg for the dagger character) in the body  text,  followed  by  the
       text of the footnote enclosed by FS \(dg and FE macros.

       You can control how groff prints footnote numbers by changing the value
       of the FF register as follows:

	      0	     Prints the footnote number as a superscript; indents  the
		     footnote (default).

	      1	     Prints  the  number  followed  by	a period (like 1.) and
		     indents the footnote.

	      2	     Like 1, without an indent.

	      3	     Like 1, but prints the footnote number as a hanging para‐
		     graph.

       You can use footnotes safely within keeps and displays, but avoid using
       numbered footnotes within floating keeps.  You can  set	a  second  \**
       between	a  \**	and  its corresponding .FS; as long as each .FS occurs
       after the corresponding \** and the occurrences of .FS are in the  same
       order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.

   Headers and footers
       There are two ways to define headers and footers:

       ·  Use  the  strings  LH, CH, and RH to set the left, center, and right
	  headers; use LF, CF, and RF to set the left, center, and right foot‐
	  ers.	 This works best for documents that do not distinguish between
	  odd and even pages.

       ·  Use the OH and EH macros to define headers  for  the	odd  and  even
	  pages;  and  OF and EF macros to define footers for the odd and even
	  pages.  This is more flexible than defining the individual  strings.
	  The syntax for these macros is as follows:

		 .OH 'left'center'right'

	  You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing
	  in the header or footer text.

   Margins
       You control margins using a set of number registers.  The following ta‐
       ble lists the register names and defaults:

	      Reg.	    Definition	       Effective    Default
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
	       PO     Page offset (left mar‐   next page    1i
		      gin)
	       LL     Line length	       next para.   6i
	       LT     Header/footer length     next para.   6i
	       HM     Top (header) margin      next page    1i
	       FM     Bottom (footer) margin   next page    1i
	      ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

       Note that there is no right margin setting.  The	 combination  of  page
       offset  and line length provide the information necessary to derive the
       right margin.

   Multiple columns
       The ms macros can set text in as many columns as will reasonably fit on
       the  page.   The	 following  macros are available.  All of them force a
       page break if a multi-column mode is already set.  However, if the cur‐
       rent mode is single-column, starting a multi-column mode does not force
       a page break.

       .1C    Single-column mode.

       .2C    Two-column mode.

       .MC [width [gutter]]
	      Multi-column mode.  If you specify no arguments, it  is  equiva‐
	      lent  to	the  2C	 macro.	 Otherwise, width is the width of each
	      column and gutter is the space between columns.  The MINGW  num‐
	      ber register is the default gutter width.

   Creating a table of contents
       Wrap text that you want to appear in the table of contents in XS and XE
       macros.	Use the TC macro to print the table of contents at the end  of
       the document, resetting the page number to i (Roman numeral 1).

       You can manually create a table of contents by specifying a page number
       as the first argument to XS.   Add  subsequent  entries	using  the  XA
       macro.  For example:

	      .XS 1
	      Introduction
	      .XA 2
	      A Brief History of the Universe
	      .XA 729
	      Details of Galactic Formation
	      ...
	      .XE

       Use  the PX macro to print a manually-generated table of contents with‐
       out resetting the page number.

       If you give the argument no to either PX or TC, groff suppresses print‐
       ing the title specified by the \*[TOC] string.

DIFFERENCES FROM troff ms
       The groff ms macros are a complete re-implementation, using no original
       AT&T code.  Since they take  advantage  of  the	extended  features  in
       groff, they cannot be used with AT&T troff.  Other differences include:

       ·  The  internals  of  groff  ms	 differ from the internals of Unix ms.
	  Documents that depend upon implementation details of Unix ms may not
	  format properly with groff ms.

       ·  The  error-handling  policy  of  groff  ms  is  to detect and report
	  errors, rather than silently to ignore them.

       ·  Bell Labs localisms are not implemented.

       ·  Berkeley localisms, in particular the TM  and	 CT  macros,  are  not
	  implemented.

       ·  Groff	 ms  does  not	work  in  compatibility mode (e.g. with the -C
	  option).

       ·  There is no support for typewriter-like devices.

       ·  Groff ms does not provide cut marks.

       ·  Multiple line spacing is not supported (use a larger vertical	 spac‐
	  ing instead).

       ·  Some	Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number registers
	  can be used to control the column width  and	gutter	width  respec‐
	  tively.  These number registers are not used in groff ms.

       ·  Macros  that	cause a reset (paragraphs, headings, etc.)  may change
	  the indent.  Macros that change  the	indent	do  not	 increment  or
	  decrement  the indent, but rather set it absolutely.	This can cause
	  problems for documents that define additional macros of  their  own.
	  The  solution is to use not the in request but instead the RS and RE
	  macros.

       ·  The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms  macros,  but  is
	  not  used  by	 the Unix ms macros.  Documents that need to determine
	  whether they are being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms should use
	  this number register.

   Strings
       You  can redefine the following strings to adapt the groff ms macros to
       languages other than English:

			     String	   Default Value
			  ─────────────────────────────────
			   REFERENCES	 References
			   ABSTRACT	 ABSTRACT
			   TOC		 Table of Contents
			   MONTH1	 January
			   MONTH2	 February
			   MONTH3	 March
			   MONTH4	 April
			   MONTH5	 May
			   MONTH6	 June
			   MONTH7	 July
			   MONTH8	 August
			   MONTH9	 September
			   MONTH10	 October
			   MONTH11	 November
			   MONTH12	 December
			  ─────────────────────────────────

       The \*- string produces an em dash — like this.

   Text Settings
       The FAM string sets the default font family.  If this string  is	 unde‐
       fined at initialization, it is set to Times.

       The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for foot‐
       notes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and FPD; at ini‐
       tialization  these  are	set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2 respec‐
       tively.	If any of these registers are defined  before  initialization,
       the initialization macro does not change them.

       The  hyphenation	 flags	(as set by the hy request) are set from the HY
       register; the default is 14.

       Improved accent marks (as originally defined in Berkeley's ms  version)
       are available by specifying the AM macro at the beginning of your docu‐
       ment.  You can place an accent over most characters by  specifying  the
       string  defining the accent directly after the character.  For example,
       n\*~ produces an n with a tilde over it.

NAMING CONVENTIONS
       The following conventions are used for names  of	 macros,  strings  and
       number  registers.   External names available to documents that use the
       groff ms macros contain only uppercase letters and digits.

       Internally the macros are divided into modules; naming conventions  are
       as follows:

       ·  Names used only within one module are of the form module*name.

       ·  Names	 used  outside the module in which they are defined are of the
	  form module@name.

       ·  Names associated with a  particular  environment  are	 of  the  form
	  environment:name; these are used only within the par module.

       ·  name does not have a module prefix.

       ·  Constructed	names  used  to	 implement  arrays  are	 of  the  form
	  array!index.

       Thus the groff ms macros reserve the following names:

       ·  Names containing the characters *, @, and :.

       ·  Names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

FILES
       /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/ms.tmac (a wrapper file for s.tmac)
       /usr/share/groff/1.18.1.1/tmac/s.tmac

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1), refer(1),  Groff:  The  GNU
       Implementation of troff by Trent Fisher and Werner Lemberg.

AUTHOR
       Original	 manual	 page  by James Clark et al; rewritten by Larry Kollar
       (lkollar@despammed.com).

Groff Version 1.18.1.1		 09 March 2002			   GROFF_MS(7)
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