Should I use minipages to re-create this document in LaTeX?

Question

I would like to re-create this document in LaTeX and I was wondering how to proceed. Should I create two minipages, one for the left (45%) and the other for the right (45%)? 10% spacing between them, then create smaller minipages for the word examples?

I tried something like this:

Also, those titles "Rule1", "Rule2", and so on should be in hbox? Any suggestion is appreciated.

Thank you. Can I re-create the entire document structure with tabularx? — Zoltan King, Mar 10 '22 at 17:10
@campa I wrote tabularx but I'd probably use minipage here:-) — David Carlisle, Mar 10 '22 at 17:21
what isn't clear from your description is if the rules need to align, so if there were rule 4 below this would there be a gap in the left column with the two rule 4 headings at the same line, or would each column follow the natural spacing of its own text? — David Carlisle, Mar 10 '22 at 17:24
Yes, it would be great to have them aligned. Those are the only rules. I won't add less or more. Just exactly the document as seen above. — Zoltan King, Mar 10 '22 at 17:25
Posting screen shots of your editor isn't really helpful. Instead paste the relevant code into your question directly and format it using the {} icon. Unrelated: your rule 3 for –s has nothing to do with –s, Don't you want something about the pronunciation of –s after /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ instead? — Alan Munn, Mar 10 '22 at 19:50
That's true, @AlanMunn. Thank you for pointing that out. I appreciate your time. Then I will need to remove the rule 3 for the "suffix -s." That will look a little bit odd with one missing element on the right side. — Zoltan King, Mar 10 '22 at 20:09
No, you still need three rules. For symmetry, your rule 1 should be the rule I mentioned which is fundamentally the same phonological process as the –ed rule 1, but just with a different set of conditioning consonants. Then your old rule 2 should remain and your old rule 1 should become rule 3. — Alan Munn, Mar 10 '22 at 20:13

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered May 13 '23 at 21:11

A solution with tabularray.

Since you didn't provide an MWE, for convenience I used "blah" and didn't write the correct phonetic symbols and words.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularray}
\usepackage{xcolor}
% code from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/400676/101651
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Junicode} % or any other font that provides the glyphs
\begin{document}
\begin{table}\footnotesize
\begin{tblr}{
    colspec={*8{X[c]}},
    cell{1}{1,5}={c=4}{c, font=\normalfont\bfseries, bg=lightgray!30},
    cell{2,6,10}{1,5}={c=4}{l, font=\bfseries, bg=lightgray!30},
    cell{3,7,11,14}{1,5}={c=4}{j},
    hspan=minimal,
    vline{5}={wd=7pt, white},
    hline{2}={wd=7pt, white},
    row{1}={rowsep=3pt},
    row{2,6,10}={rowsep=2pt},
    row{3,7,11}={rowsep=6pt},
    row{5,9,13}={belowsep=6pt},
    stretch=0,
    column{1,5}={leftsep=1pt},
    column{4,Z}={rightsep=1pt},
    }
    SUFFIX -ed &&&& SUFFIX -s &&&\
    Rule 1 &&&& Rule 1 &&&\
    If the last letter of the word is spelled with a \emph{d} or a \emph{t}, blah blah blah &&&& When an s follows a voiceless consonant, it is blah blah blah &&&\
    needed &  decided & avoided & waited & books & likes & cats & helps\
    /ˈniːdɪd/ & /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/ & /əˈvɔɪdɪd/ & /waited/ & /books/ & /likes/ & /cats/ & /helps/\
    Rule 2 &&&& Rule 2 &&&\
    If the last blah blah blah &&&& When an s blah blah blah &&&\
    needed &  decided & avoided & waited & books & likes & cats & helps\
    /ˈniːdɪd/ & /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/ & /əˈvɔɪdɪd/ & /waited/ & /books/ & /likes/ & /cats/ & /helps/\
    Rule 3 &&&& Rule 3 &&&\
    If the last blah blah blah &&&& Doulble s blah blah blah &&&\
    needed &  decided & avoided & waited & books & likes & cats & helps\
    /ˈniːdɪd/ & /dɪˈsaɪdɪd/ & /əˈvɔɪdɪd/ & /waited/ & /books/ & /likes/ & /cats/ & /helps/\
    &&&& exceptions: blah blah blah &&&\
\end{tblr}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Should I use minipages to re-create this document in LaTeX?

1 Answers1