Writing texts in two parallel columns

Question

I need to quote an excerpt of a book along with its translation, but I don't know how to write the original text in the left of my document and the translated one in the right of the same page.

The document class is book, and my document is written full page, not divided in columns.

Can you help me?

@ChristianHupfer The paracol package seems good. Is there a way to change the column width? (There is too much empty space between columns) And is it possible to change the size of the text only in the paracol environment? — M-elman, Sep 12 '16 at 17:18
@M-elman: If I remember correctly, the column widths can be changed — , Sep 12 '16 at 17:30
@ChristianHupfer Can you tell me how? And if is it possible to change the size of the text? — M-elman, Sep 12 '16 at 17:46

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

5

You can use, possibly amongst other choices, paracol or parcolumns. Each have their own option to specify/choose from.

`paracol`

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}% Just for this example
\usepackage{paracol,lipsum}
\begin{document}
\sloppy% Just for this example
\lipsum[1]
\columnratio{0.4}
%\setlength{\columnseprule}{.4pt}
\begin{paracol}{2}
  \lipsum[2]
  \switchcolumn
  \lipsum[3]
\end{paracol}
\lipsum[4]
\end{document}

`parcolumns`

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}% Just for this example
\usepackage{parcolumns,lipsum}
\begin{document}
\sloppy% Just for this example
\lipsum[1]
\begin{parcolumns}[colwidths={1=.4\linewidth},rulebetween]{2}
  \colchunk{\lipsum[2]}
  \colchunk{\lipsum[3]}
\end{parcolumns}
\lipsum[4]
\end{document}

edited Jun 10 '20 at 12:32

Community

1

answered Sep 12 '16 at 17:50

Werner

603,163

Paracol suits me, I tried it and it seems the solution for what I need to do. Now however I need to do some changes to columns and the text in them: in the matter in question I want to decrease the space between the columns and, if it is possible, to decrease also the font size, in order to make the text occupy less space in the page. – M-elman Sep 12 '16 at 18:13
@M-elman: Are you just translating terms, or are you translating paragraphs? Will you only use one page for this, or more than one? – Werner Sep 12 '16 at 18:20
I'm translating an excerpt of an article - so, paragraphs - and I want to use only a part of a page for this. With default settings the section occupies a full page and it' unsightly. – M-elman Sep 12 '16 at 18:26
@M-elman: So you have \section* inside the environment you want to translate? Please provide as much detail as possible. Alternatively, provide an image... – Werner Sep 12 '16 at 18:42
In the current chapter of my document I have the section "MySection". I wrote something in it and then I need to quote a piece of a scientific article, which I prefer to quote in the original language and translated, preferably in two columns, under the text above, but without changing the settings of all the document. Since it's an example, I would like to write it without occupying a full page, hence the need to reduce the font size and the space between columns. Did I manage to clarify everything? – M-elman Sep 12 '16 at 19:01
@M-elman: Look at this paste. You can adjust the font size by adding some font switch (like \small, as in the linked example). I've manually set the section titles, if you have any you want to translate, and made the column switching sync up. You can change the column widths using \columnratio{<ratio>} or \setcolumnwidth. – Werner Sep 12 '16 at 19:15
\small worked perfectly. Now I know that is the opposite of what I asked before, but one last thing: how can I increase the space between the two columns? (It appeared to be too much due to the quote environment and now is too little) – M-elman Sep 12 '16 at 19:51
@M-elman: Add \setlength{\columnsep}{5em} before the paracol environment. Change 5em to suit your needs. – Werner Sep 12 '16 at 19:57

Writing texts in two parallel columns

1 Answers1

paracol

parcolumns

`paracol`

`parcolumns`