How to add a side-bar non-intrusively over more then one paragraph?

Question

If I insert a couple of new paragraphs in my long text I want to mark the new section somehow so that others can see I edited this part and it is not yet corrected.

I also want to be able to remove the "this is new text" markings very easily. Ideally they should show up with one or two lines in a diff or so.

Currently I use a text color that spans several paragraphs. That works quite well with \begingroup and \endgroup:

\begingroup \color{tcolortodo}

    More the none paragraph, ... lists, tables, etc.

\endgroup

But I often print my stuff on a black-and-white printer. So, the only other possibility that comes to mind would be a black line or bar alongside the new paragraphs. How do I do that?

Answer 1

You can do this using the changebar package. In the following minimal example, the use of colour (red) merely highlights the changes as reflected by the contents between \cbstart and \cbend:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{changebar}% http://ctan.org/pkg/changebar
\usepackage{xcolor}% http://ctan.org/pkg/xcolor
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam et urna odio. 
Suspendisse vitae lacus orci. Morbi neque metus, sollicitudin eget varius 
at, malesuada a urna. Integer bibendum quam ultrices est interdum a 
placerat sem aliquet. Sed ipsum tellus, hendrerit eu iaculis eget, 
facilisis a purus. Mauris id justo ligula, sed facilisis neque. Praesent 
mauris mi, ultrices nec sodales ut, mollis at quam. Cras a est a mauris 
ullamcorper aliquet. Nunc risus turpis, iaculis vel fermentum id, gravida 
at nulla. Nam condimentum semper lectus. In et sollicitudin sem. Nunc nunc 
ante, dapibus non luctus nec, laoreet vel leo. Fusce lorem risus, 
fermentum in aliquet sed, pellentesque at est. Nam nec tempor eros.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam et urna odio. 
Suspendisse vitae lacus orci. Morbi neque metus, sollicitudin eget varius 
at, malesuada a urna. \cbstart{\color{red}In magna erat, suscipit vitae rutrum sit 
amet, condimentum at velit. Aenean semper quam sed dolor malesuada id 
aliquet mi fringilla.}\cbend\ Mauris id justo ligula, sed facilisis neque. 
Praesent mauris mi, ultrices nec sodales ut, mollis at quam. Cras a est a 
mauris ullamcorper aliquet. Nunc risus turpis, iaculis vel fermentum id, 
gravida at nulla. Nam condimentum semper lectus. In et sollicitudin sem. 
Nunc nunc ante, dapibus non luctus nec, laoreet vel leo. Fusce lorem risus, 
fermentum in aliquet sed, pellentesque at est. Nam nec tempor eros.

\end{document}

The package also provides a changebar environment if needed. See the package documentation for more information on this, as well as changing the colour of the bar:

\usepackage[pdftex,color]{changebar}% http://ctan.org/pkg/changebar
\cbcolor{black}% Change bar colour is black

If you want to remove the changes, you can modify the commands \cbstart and \cbend in your document by means of (say)

\let\cbstart\relax % Void \cbstart
\let\cbend\relax % Void \cbend

or by using the provided \nochangebars.

PS. I specified the driver as pdftex. You need to modify this depending on your compiling sequence. Again, this is contained in the package documentation.