The ms macro package expects files to have a certain amount of structure.
  The simplest documents can begin with a paragraph macro and consist 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 document,
      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 paragraphs,
      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.
The following table lists the document control number registers. For the sake of
  consistency, set registers related to margins at the beginning of your
  document, or just after the RP macro.Margin settings
  
    | Reg. | Definition | Effective | Default | 
  
    | PO | Page offset (left margin) | next page | 1i | 
  
    | 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 | 
  
    | PSINCR | Point size increment for section headings of increasing
      importance | next heading | 1p | 
  
    | GROWPS | Heading level beyond which PSINCR is ignored | next heading | 0 | 
 
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 | 
  
    | PORPHANS | Number of initial lines to be kept together | next para. | 1 | 
  
    | HORPHANS | Number of initial lines to be kept with heading | next heading | 1 | 
 
Footnote settings
  
    | Reg. | Definition | Effective | Default | 
  
    | FL | Footnote length | next footnote | \n[LL]*5/6 | 
  
    | FI | Footnote indent | next footnote | 2n | 
  
    | FF | Footnote format | next footnote | 0 | 
  
    | FPS | Point size | next footnote | \n[PS]-2 | 
  
    | FVS | Vert. spacing | next footnote | \n[FPS]+2 | 
  
    | FPD | Para. spacing | next footnote | \n[PD]/2 | 
 
Other settings
  
    | Reg. | Definition | Effective | Default | 
  
    | MINGW | Minimum width between columns | next page | 2n | 
 
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 format 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.
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 paragraph 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).
For each of the above paragraph types, and also for any list entry
    introduced by the IP macro (described later), the document control
    register PORPHANS, sets the minimum number of lines which must
    be printed, after the start of the paragraph, and before any page break
    occurs. If there is insufficient space remaining on the current page to
    accommodate this number of lines, then a page break is forced before
    the first line of the paragraph is printed.
Similarly, when a section heading (see subsection Headings
    below) preceeds any of these paragraph types, the HORPHANS document
    control register specifies the minimum number of lines of the
    paragraph which must be kept on the same page as the heading. If
    insufficient space remains on the current page to accommodate the heading
    and this number of lines of paragraph text, then a page break is forced
    before the heading is printed.
Use headings to create a hierarchical structure for your document. By default,
  the ms macros print headings in bold using the same font family
  and point size as the body text. For output devices which support scalable
  fonts, this behaviour may be modified, by defining the document control
  registers, GROWPS and PSINCR.
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.
  
  - If the GROWPS register is set to a value greater than the level of
      the heading, then the point size of the heading will be increased by
      PSINCR units over the text size specified by the PS
      register, for each level by which the heading level is less than the value
      of GROWPS. For example, the sequence:
  
  - 
    
.nr PS 10
.nr GROWPS 3
.nr PSINCR 1.5p
.
.NH 1
Top Level Heading
.
.NH 2
Second Level Heading
.
.NH 3
Third Level Heading
    
 
  
  - will cause
      “1. Top Level Heading” to be
      printed in 13pt bold text, followed by
      “1.1. Second Level Heading” in
      11.5pt bold text, while
      “1.1.1. Third Level Heading”,
      and all more deeply nested heading levels, will remain in the 10pt
      bold text which is specified by the PS register.
- Note that the value stored in PSINCR is interpreted in groff
      basic units; the p scaling factor should be employed, when
      assigning a value specified in points.
- After invoking .NH, the assigned heading number is available in the
      strings SN-DOT (exactly as it appears in the formatted heading),
      and SN-NO-DOT (with its final period omitted). The string SN
      is also defined, as an alias for SN-DOT; if preferred, the user may
      redefine it as an alias for SN-NO-DOT, by including the
      initialisation:
  
  - 
    
.ds SN-NO-DOT
.als SN SN-NO-DOT
    
 
  
  - before the first use of .NH, or simply:
  
  - after the first use of .NH.
  - .SH [xx]
- Unnumbered subheading. The use of the optional xx argument is a GNU
      extension, which adjusts the point size of the unnumbered subheading to
      match that of a numbered heading, introduced using
      .NH xx with the same value of xx. For example,
      given the same settings for PS, GROWPS and PSINCR, as
      used in the preceeding .NH example, the sequence:
  
  - 
    
.SH 2
An Unnumbered Subheading
    
 
  
  - will print “An Unnumbered Subheading” in 11.5pt
      bold text.
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 punctuation after the
      highlighted text without highlighting the punctuation). Similarly, it
      prints the third argument (if any) in the previous font before the
      first argument. For example,
  
  - prints (foo).
- If you give this macro no arguments, groff prints all text
      following in bold until the next highlighting, paragraph, or heading
      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 similarly 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 multiple 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 multiple 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.
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.
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 numbered 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.
    
 
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.
Use displays to show text-based examples or figures (such as code listings).
  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 following 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-justified, longest line centered). | 
  
    | .DS C | .CD | Centered. | 
  
    | .DS R | .RD | Right-justified. | 
 
Use the DE macro to end any display type. The macros
    Ds and De were formerly provided as aliases for DS and
    DE, respectively, but they have been removed, and should no longer be
    used. X11 documents which actually use Ds and De always load a
    specific macro file from the X11 distribution (macros.t) which provides
    proper definitions for the two macros.
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.
The macros B1 and B2 can be used to enclose a text
    within a box; .B1 begins the box, and .B2 ends it. Text in the
    box is automatically placed in a diversion (keep).
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
      available 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 database.
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 paragraph.
 
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 \**.
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 footers. 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:
  
  - You can replace the quote (') marks with any character not appearing in
      the header or footer text.
You control margins using a set of number registers. The following table lists
  the register names and defaults:
  
    | Reg. | Definition | Effective | Default | 
  
    | PO | Page offset (left margin) | next page | 1i | 
  
    | 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.
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 current 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 equivalent to the
      2C macro. Otherwise, width is the width of each column and
      gutter is the space between columns. The MINGW number
      register is the default gutter width.
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 without resetting the page number.
If you give the argument no to either PX or
    TC, groff suppresses printing the title specified by the
    \*[TOC] string.
Traditionally, the ms macros only support integer values for the
  document's font size and vertical spacing. To overcome this restriction,
  values larger than or equal to 1000 are taken as fractional values, multiplied
  by 1000. For example, `.nr PS 10250' sets the font size to 10.25
  points.
The following four registers accept fractional point sizes:
    PS, VS, FPS, and FVS.
Due to backwards compatibility, the value of VS must be
    smaller than 40000 (this is 40.0 points).
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 spacing
      instead).
- Some Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW
      number registers can be used to control the column width and gutter width,
      respectively. 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.
- To make groff ms use the default page offset (which also specifies
      the left margin), the PO number register must stay undefined until
      the first ms macro is evaluated. This implies that PO should
      not be used early in the document, unless it is changed also: Remember
      that accessing an undefined register automatically defines it.
    
 
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.
Use \*Q and \*U to get a left and right
    typographer's quote, respectively, in troff (and plain quotes in
    nroff).
The FAM string sets the default font family. If this string is undefined
  at initialization, it is set to Times.
The point size, vertical spacing, and inter-paragraph spacing for
    footnotes are controlled by the number registers FPS, FVS, and
    FPD; at initialization these are set to \n(PS-2,
    \n[FPS]+2, and \n(PD/2, respectively. 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 document. 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.