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I often have displayed equations in the middle of a paragraph, so that the following text of the equation does not start on a new line but follows with a space.

In such situations, I would like to know how I can adjust the vertical space between the displayed equation and the following text. I've tried with the usual \vspace{} trick, by putting it just in front of the first word that follows the equation. However, it produces the wrong effect by increasing the vertical space between the first line of text after equation and the second.

Any suggestion? Thanks!

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have a look at Herbert Voss' mathmode document: texdoc mathmode –  cmhughes Apr 5 '12 at 20:50

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up vote 12 down vote accepted

The space is one of the lengths

\belowdisplayskip=12pt plus 3pt minus 9pt
\belowdisplayshortskip=7pt plus 3pt minus 4pt

so you can set those to whatever values you like using the above primitive syntax of \setlength so the first tries to be 12pt but will shrink to 9pt or stretch to 21pt to help page breaking.

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Just remember to set the parameters after \begin{document}. –  egreg Apr 5 '12 at 20:27
thanks! can I apply these settings locally to just one equation? –  Skyork Apr 5 '12 at 20:31
\belowdisplayshortskip does the trick. thanks! –  Skyork Apr 5 '12 at 20:52
@Skyork: You can localize the length modification by wrapping it in a \begingroup...\endgroup. –  Werner Apr 5 '12 at 20:58

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