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I'm trying to make a left-sided margin note.

As per the LaTeX wiki, I tried using \reversemarginpar but that didn't solve anything—it didn't make a margin note at all. I also tried \marginpar[left text/right text]{%my text} to no avail. I tried using two other packages, marginnote and mparhack, but again, those didn't solve my problem.

Maybe there are some things I've missed (perhaps I have to further define something in the preamble?), but I would appreciate an example of how to use a margin note successfully.

Here's some code I tried:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage[top=2cm, bottom=1.3cm, left=2.5cm, right=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tensor}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{outlines}
\usepackage{ulem}


\title{Chapter 13 - Chromosomal Rearrangements and Changes in Chromosome Number}
\author{A. Uthor}
\date{}


\pagestyle{empty}


\begin{document}
  \maketitle


\section*{\Large Types:}
  \begin{outline}[enumerate]
  \1 Duplications
  \1 Deletions
  \1 Inversions
  \1 Translocations
  \end{outline}


\textbf{semisterility} $\rightarrow$ diminished fertility of translocation heterozygotes by at least 50%
  \reversemarginpar{Why does Mendel's 2$\mathrm{^{nd}}$ require viability of offspring?}
\end{document}
speedstyle
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Miriam
  • 1,733
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    Can you narrow down the problem by including at least the errors you get or misalignment problems etc. shown on your compiled document? – percusse Mar 29 '11 at 22:50
  • You don't really have the % in the %my text part, do you? It would make TeX ignore the text and cause an error because of the missing }. – Martin Scharrer Mar 29 '11 at 22:50
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    You really need to post your code. \reversemarginpar is a command that, when issued, forces all \marginpars created after to be put on the opposite side of normal (that is, on the left instead of right for single sided documents, and on the inside edge as opposed to the outside edge for double sided documents). But it sounds like you want to dynamically switch sides as you go along? Like having some margin notes on the left and others on the right? (Lastly, a comment on asking questions: it helps to make your question title more descriptive.) – Willie Wong Mar 29 '11 at 22:54
  • @ Martin Scharrer - No, I don't really have the % in my original code. – Miriam Mar 30 '11 at 02:14
  • @ Wille Wong - No, I do not want to switch sides (have the margin note be left or right as I go along, if that's what you mean). I'd just like the margin note to remain consistently on the left side. I'm sorry if my title is not quite descriptive... – Miriam Mar 30 '11 at 02:17
  • @ percusse - I don't get any errors when I compile to PDF (I'm using LaTeXilla), but I've posted my code. – Miriam Mar 30 '11 at 02:18
  • Your minimal example will produce some errors, because you deleted too much information from your actual code: you forgot a \begin{outline} command and some first-level item inside the outline. I will correct your minimal example, if that's OK with you. – Gonzalo Medina Mar 30 '11 at 02:37
  • @ Gonzalo Medina: I was a bit hasty when I was editing my code, so whatever edits you need to make are okay with me. – Miriam Mar 30 '11 at 03:11

1 Answers1

15

The \reversemarginpar command cannot be used to typeset the marginal notes; as Willie Wong mentioned in a comment, all \reversemarginpar does is to force all subsequent marginal notes to be put on the opposite side. To typeset your marginal notes, you can use the standard \marginpar command or, even better, you can use the \marginnote command provided by the marginnote package: an example including some of your code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage[top=2cm, bottom=1.3cm, left=2.5cm, right=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tensor}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{outlines}
\usepackage{ulem}
\usepackage{marginnote}

\reversemarginpar

\title{\vspace{-0.9in}\uline{Chapter 13 - Chromosomal Rearrangements and Changes in Chromosome Number}}
\author{A. Uthor}
\date{}  

\begin{document}

\section*{\Large Types:}
\begin{outline}[enumerate]
\1 Duplications
\1 Deletions
\1 Inversions
\1 Translocations
\end{outline}

 \textbf{semisterility} $\rightarrow$ diminished fertility of translocation heterozygotes by at least 50\% \marginnote{Why does Mendel's 2$\mathrm{^{nd}}$ require viability of offspring?}

\end{document}

You must compile several times to see the marginal note in its final position.

On a side note, can I ask you why do you use the outlines package? It is not part of TeX Live or MiKTeX, and the enumitem package (which you are also loading) offers you more possibilities (in my opinion) to customize your lists.

Gonzalo Medina
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  • @ Gonzalo Medina: Oh, the reason why I'm using the outlines package is because I'm making an outline and I find it less messy than using having to start a new enumerate for a new sublevel. Since I'm still learning how to use LaTeX, I sort of have this propensity to just keep all the packages I've ever used in my preamble just in case. Whatever I don't use, I delete before I compile the final document. – Miriam Mar 30 '11 at 03:33
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    @Halime: For outlining, you may want to have a look at org mode for emacs. It has LaTeX exporting capabilities, so it might be helpful for you. – Dror Mar 30 '11 at 09:44