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I need to type an exam, but the first page must have its left side margin, from top to bottom, be in landscape, but the rest of the exam is normal.

The left side margin will run the entire length of the first page. So the left side of the first page will be the top of the margin. I have to put places for the name, student number, class, etc. in side this left margin. Also it must be in Chinese. The rest of the exam will be in English.

I am not very clear upon how to do this.

MaoYiyi
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  • is the chinese in this marginal column to be read top-to-bottom or left-to-right? is it all chinese, or are latin-alphabet words present as well? – barbara beeton Nov 03 '12 at 13:59
  • @barbarabeeton As I stated,t he left margin would be the top of the rotated text. So it not to be read top-to-bottom, but left to right. – MaoYiyi Nov 03 '12 at 17:05
  • if the left edge of the marginal text is to be at the top of the page, and this text is to be read left-to-right, then @DavidCarlisle's answer should be rotated clockwise rather than counter-clockwise. otherwise that answer looks reasonable. thank you for the clarification. – barbara beeton Nov 03 '12 at 17:14

1 Answers1

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You can use \rotatebox to rotate the text and picture mode in a zero-sized (0,0) environment to position it within the margin. I used fontspec and xelatex to access Chinese but any method would work.

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx,fontspec}

\setmainfont{SimSun}

\begin{document}

\begin{picture}(0,0)
\put(-50,-300){\rotatebox{90}{Google translate says this means My name is David: 我的名字是大卫}}
\end{picture}

Stuff here\ldots

Stuff here\ldots

Stuff here\ldots

\vdots

\vfill

\vdots

stuff

\end{document}
David Carlisle
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  • You are a awesome! 你牛be – MaoYiyi Nov 03 '12 at 13:58
  • @DavidCarlisle -- read my comment to the question. if the info in this column is all chinese, then your answer could get everything logically backwards. – barbara beeton Nov 03 '12 at 14:01
  • @barbarabeeton Yes there is a distinction between vertical writing and horizontal writing rotated, I did the latter, hopefully that's what was wanted. – David Carlisle Nov 03 '12 at 14:06
  • @barbarabeeton when you write chinese vertical, the characters are written normally but the next one is underneath it, not to its right. – MaoYiyi Nov 03 '12 at 17:02
  • @MaoYiyi -- yes, i know that vertical chinese is written top-to-bottom. the reason i asked is that i thought if top-to-bottom text was used, it wouldn't be necessary to rotate anything; all the characters would instead be in a single column, one above another in their "normal" orientation. – barbara beeton Nov 03 '12 at 17:08
  • If you (or some other reader) do want vertical text instead then it seems that this is probably the technique to use with xelatex http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/38577/vertical-chinese-text-with-xetex – David Carlisle Nov 03 '12 at 17:14