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).