[Solved-Workaround] Aligning Parallel Columns

[gtaus]

I am experimenting with writing dual language texts, with the left column in a foreign language and the right column in English. All of the programs for parallel text I have seen are text only. I thought it might be nice to include pictures, illustrations, audio, movies, etc... in my parallel text which seems to be possible in OpenOffice. Is there anyway to "anchor" text in the left column to the right column so that if I edit the text or add a picture/object in the project, the text on the left will stay aligned with the English text on the right and page flow together correctly? Any help/suggestions appreciated.

FYI, I am setting up the project using the Table feature, with 2 columns and 1 line. That way I can import a Gutenberg eBook foreign language text in the left column, and the English version copied to the right column.

[RoryOF]

"Parallel columns" are not yet implemented. Your best approach is to use a two (or more) column table. Remember that you can turn off the table borders.

Edit: Using this method you have to work in terms of text units and you (the writer) have to manage these. In the case of (say) biblical texts, the unit is the verse. In other texts it might be the paragraph, but this must depend on the actual case in question.

[gtaus]

Thanks for the response. I know that Parallel columns have been discussed as far back as 2008 in some posts. I don't imagine this feature is on the hot list, as it probably does not come up very often and the feature has yet to be implemented. Anyway, what effect is gained by turning off the table borders in terms of text alignment? I thought table borders was only a display issue and has nothing to do with text flow.

[RoryOF]

Turning off table borders will merely disguise the mechanism you used to align your text segments.

[gtaus]

OK. Sounds like any parallel text project will be a manual alignment job. That will be easy enough for short texts, but I think I will look into other options for aligning complete books. Thanks.

[RoryOF]

You could experiment with "linked frames", but no matter what you do I think you will have a lot of manual steering to do. Another approach may be to tackle the project in Tex/Latex.

[acknak]

OK. Sounds like any parallel text project will be a manual alignment job. ...

What kind of alignment are you interested in? Tables can flow across page boundaries, so pagination is still automatic. You can use table rows where you need alignment across the page.

Two-column tables can handle complete books; text size isn't an issue. I'm not sure I see how parallel columns would be substantially different.

[RoryOF]

Two column tables can handle the matter, if one enters text in manageable units, but the output might have whitespace gaps on the one column or the other, which might be felt unsightly.. The problem seems to be automatically maintaining the alignment of sections of text in the different columns, if one text in one column is longer than the corresponding text in the other. This is something one might do instinctively at creation time, but suppose the secondary text is not translation but (say) a comment, and one returns and extends a comment.

Another possibility might be to use extensive footnotes (I hope jrkrideau is not reading this!), then use Hanya's Sidenotes code to turn them into hanging sidenotes Hanya's Sidenote code

I'm not sure that this works "out of the box" with OO 4, but the conversion (if necessary) ought not be too difficult.
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[RoryOF]

I've looked briefly today at the possibility of parallel columns using linked frames. With this method, it is easy to cause the first column to continue on the next page(s) and similarly for the second column. However there is no crosslinking between the columns - that is, no easy mechanism (if any) to keep areas of text aligned. At present I think this would have to be done manually, by adjustment of white space between the areas. One might (blue sky thinking) invent a new Paragraph/Heading style with Master/Slave functionality that linked across the columns and adjusted the white space above the slave area to match that of the Master style with which it was to align.

I think, if the text is in manageable sections (such as verses or paragraphs), using tables is the easiest method.

[gtaus]

What kind of alignment are you interested in? Tables can flow across page boundaries, so pagination is still automatic. You can use table rows where you need alignment across the page.

I knew table rows keep alignment across the page. But I discovered that I can highlight a row and not let it break across pages and columns. That gives me the complete paragraph of both the foreign language text and the English translation on the same page, which was one alignment issue I wanted to resolve. It makes it a lot easier to read when both complete paragraphs are on the page.

Two-column tables can handle complete books; text size isn't an issue. I'm not sure I see how parallel columns would be substantially different.

I have loaded up Jules Verne - Mysterious Island with the original French on the left and the English translation on the right, into a 2 column 1 row table. My idea is to insert rows above the current cell and align the texts manually using cut and paste. Prior to adding rows, the project is about 550 pages long. I imagine it will get a lot longer when I start adding rows and aligning the text. At any rate, OO seems to be handling the complete books, although it sure needs more time to process the text when I make changes.

Along those lines, I am thinking that I will break up the project into chapters for faster editing, and then later combine/merge the chapters into the complete book in one file.

There are advantages to using OO for this parallel text project. I can add pictures, audio clips, etc... in OO whereas the other alignment programs I used were limited to text only. So I will be experimenting more with OO for creating parallel texts.

[gtaus]

...I think, if the text is in manageable sections (such as verses or paragraphs), using tables is the easiest method.

Thanks for the replies. I agree, tables appears to be the easiest method. For my project, the text is broken up into complete paragraphs and tables seem to handle it just fine.

[gtaus]

In case anyone is interested in this topic, I have moved to using Calc for my parallel text projects. I posted a message in the Calc forum on how I set up my dual language projects. I find Calc handles the text alignment issues better than Writer. Also, large projects can be broken up in Calc and put on separate sheets, for example, Title, CH01, CH02.... each as a separate sheet in the project. I really noticed a significant increase in speed on the updates after an edit when the project was broken down to separate chapters/sheets. Using Calc just works better for me and I thought I would update this post in case anyone is interested in the topic.

[Hagar Delest]

Thanks for the feedback. This is not the first time it was asked, it may also help users in the future (they may spare time trying to do that in Writer).

I've tagged the topic as solved with a workaround, you can remove it if you prefer to keep it open.