Outer par mode

[Dieter Britz]

I am trying to latex a tex file, have included thre
packages graphicx and eepic, and when it comes to the
first figure, I get this message:

! LaTeX Error: Not in outer par mode.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type H <return> for immediate help.
...

l.158 \begin{figure}[!pb]

What is this telling me?

--
Dieter Britz

[Jean-Côme Charpentier]

He tells you that you can't use figure if you aren't in outer par
mode. TeXbook says that they are six modes:

1. Vertical mode (inside the page)
2. Internal vertical mode (inside \vbox)
3. Horizontal mode (inside a paragraph)
4. Internal horizontal mode (inside a \hbox)
5. Math mode (inside $...$)
6. Display math mode (inside $$...$$ (for TeX))

figure, table and any float must be specified inside mode 1 or 3. TeX
(LaTeX in fact) raises this error when a float is specified in mode 2,
4, 5, or 6 (well not with 6 but it's a bit technically).

This M(W)E:

-----%<----------%<----------%<----------%<-----
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Somme text
\vbox{\begin{figure} hello \end{figure}}
\hbox{\begin{figure} hello \end{figure}}

\begin{minipage}{5cm}
\begin{figure} hello \end{figure}
\end{minipage}

Some math: $a=b \begin{figure} a=b \end{figure}$
\end{document}
-----%<----------%<----------%<----------%<-----

shows 4 errors `not in outer par mode'.

Where is your 158th lines? Inside what?

Jean-Côme Charpentier

[GL]

Le 03/05/2015 20:11, Jean-Côme Charpentier a écrit :
> Le 03/05/2015 17:28, Dieter Britz a écrit :
> 4. Internal horizontal mode (inside a \hbox)

Erratum : Restricted horizontal mode