Trevor
I want to place multiple-line text in an align environment, in a way that does not create a new line. Here's what I want:
![want.png](/image?hash=da4549e294297c0a935e5f4a7a4d695db790cd5e857eb46a7bed79ae319486b6)

However, I can't figure out how to produce this. My best attempt is to use a parbox, but it results in a space between the lines of the equations:

\begin{align*}
a &= b + c & &\parbox[t]{20mm}{this is a long bit of text} \\
d &= e + f \\
\end{align*}

![get.png](/image?hash=ad542734712ee9f20c58629fa81448c90c6d27060e0ee5a7ab2156a562c6e9bd)
samcarter
Quick and dirty hack: smash your parbox


\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{mathtools}

\begin{document}

\begin{align*}
a &= b + c & &\smash{\parbox[t]{20mm}{this is a long bit of text}} \\
d &= e + f \\
\end{align*}

\end{document}


A different approach could be to use a table:


\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabularray}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
\begin{tblr}{
width=.6\textwidth,
colspec={Q[r]@{\;}X[l]X[20mm]},
column{1,2}={mode=dmath}
}
a &= b + c & \SetCell[r=2]{} this is a long bit of text \\
d &= e + f \\
\end{tblr}
\end{center}

\end{document}