LaTeX Spaces and Boxes

\makebox, \mbox

  \makebox[width][position]{text}
  \mbox {text}
The \makebox command creates a box to contain the text specified. The width of the box is specified by the optional width argument. The position of the text within the box is determined by the optional position argument.
c - centered (default)
l - flushleft
r - flushright
The \mbox command creates a box just wide enough to hold the text created by its argument.

\raisebox

  \raisebox{distance}[extend-above][extend-below]{text}
The \raisebox command is used to raise or lower text. The first mandatory argument specifies how high the text is to be raised (or lowered if it is a negative amount). The text itself is processed in LR mode.
Sometimes it's useful to make LaTeX think something has a different size than it really does - or a different size than LaTeX would normally think it has. The \raisebox command lets you tell LaTeX how tall it is.

The first optional argument, extend-above, makes LaTeX think that the text extends above the line by the amount specified. The second optional argument, extend-below, makes LaTeX think that the text extends below the line by the amount specified.