FrameBox around figure*

Question

I am using TeXShop (3.77 on a Mac) writing a twocolumn article and would like to insert a single-column insert that consists of three short paragraphs, side-by side. (I'd rather not switch to a full three-column style because I want to place this insert much like a figure.)

The following code works fine, as far as this goes:

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\begin{center}
\color{mygray}{\sc IN BRIEF}\color{black} \\[.1cm]
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in} {\bf Here} is my first text, which will be several lines long
\end{minipage}\quad
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in} {\bf Here} is my second text, which will be several lines long
\end{minipage}\quad 
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in} {\bf Here} is my third text, which will be several lines long \end{minipage} 
\end{center}
\end{figure*}

However, I would like to include all of this text in a single box, such as a framebox, and this is proving rather difficult. I have tried creating the framebox first, and inserting the above code inside it (without success), and likewise creating the {figure*} environment and inserting the framebox inside it (again, without success).

As a minor addendum, I would also like to render the framebox in gray (rather than black).

Answer 1

\documentclass[landscape]{article}
\usepackage{color}
\definecolor{mygray}{rgb}{0.7,0.7,0.7}
\addtolength\textwidth{100pt}
\begin{document}

\begin{figure*}[ht]
\centering
\setlength\fboxrule{3pt}
\color{mygray}\textsc{IN BRIEF}\color{black} \\[.1cm]
\fcolorbox{mygray}{white}{\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in}
\textbf{Here} is my first text, which will be several lines long
\end{minipage}\quad
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in}
\textbf{Here} is my second text, which will be several lines long
\end{minipage}\quad 
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.9in}
\textbf{Here} is my third text, which will be several lines long
\end{minipage}}
\end{figure*}
\end{document}