On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 04:12:32PM +0100, Morten Høgholm wrote: > On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Paul Thompson <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Your comment about the calc package is very interesting. I don't > > understand why it will not work. Can you direct me to something to > > clarify the problem? > > With calc loaded > \setlength\mylen{1pt+2pt} > expands to (after a few steps) > \calc@assign@generic\calc@Askip\calc@Bskip \mylen {1pt+2pt} > with \calc@assign@generic defined as > \def\calc@assign@generic#1#2#3#4{\let\calc@A#1\let\calc@B#2% > \calc@open(#4!% > \global\calc@A\calc@B\endgroup#3\calc@B} > Therefore, \global\setlength results in \calc@A being \let globally to > \calc@Askip and \mylen being set locally. \global\setlength{\hsize}{\columnwidth} can be fixed by an explicite global assignment: \setlength{\hsize}{\columnwidth} \global\hsize=\hsize Yours sincerely Heiko <[log in to unmask]>