I am looking for a command I am pretty certain to have used before but which I cannot recall (and I did search for it):
I want to create (horizontal) space of some length, e.g. created using \phantom{text}, with some other (shorter) text. It should simply fill the white space for as far as the replacing text reaches, i.e. it does not need to be stretched to fill the whole space.
I hope I explained this sufficiently since providing a MWE is hard without knowing the answer...
You can just put the short text in a box of zero width and then place the phantom afterwards as follows
\makebox[0pt][l]{short}\phantom{my long text}
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
XX\makebox[0pt][l]{short}\phantom{my long text}XX
XXmy long textXX
\end{document}
\makebox, i.e. the [l], specifiy?
– Bernd
Nov 18 '14 at 8:55
l (ell) for left alignment. Without it the text is centered, so in this zero width case sticks out to both sides of the current position, overlapping the previous text, which is not what you asked for.
– Andrew Swann
Nov 18 '14 at 8:57
With the calc package you can simply say
\makebox[\widthof{my long text}][l]{short}
A personal command seems appropriate:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{calc}
\newcommand{\textover}[3][l]{%
% #1 is the alignment, default l
% #2 is the text to be printed
% #3 is the text for setting the width
\makebox[\widthof{#3}][#1]{#2}%
}
\begin{document}
XXmy long textXX
XX\textover{short}{my long text}XX
XX\textover[c]{short}{my long text}XX
XX\textover[r]{short}{my long text}XX
XX\textover[s]{s h o r t}{my long text}XX
\end{document}
if it's just for one use, i wouldn't bother with a definition:
XXmy long textXX
XX\rlap{short}\phantom{my long text}XX
granted, it uses "plain" commands, not latex. it can easily be made into a macro if you really want to, though just for the "simple" case.
\phantomto me! Can you explain why this doesn't do what you require (and perhaps add a picture to illustrate)? – Ian Thompson Nov 18 '14 at 8:23\phantomplaces the "alternative" text after the spacing created, whereas I would like to put it inside the space. Maybe I am not using it correctly? – Bernd Nov 18 '14 at 8:33