0

Code mimicked from Double-column for Question/Answer Format? but with longer inputs:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{paracol}
\usepackage{ulem}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{newunicodechar}
\newunicodechar{ī}{i\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ā}{a\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ē}{e\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ū}{u\char\string"0304 }

\begin{document}


\section{Latvian Practice}
\begin{paracol}{2}
What operations have you had before the last operation? 

What are your old diagnoses/diseases? \uline{Tuberculosis}, \uline{hepatitis}, \uline{metabolic syndrome}, diabetes? 

Have you had endoscopy?
\switchcolumn
Kādas operācijas jums bija pirms pēdējās operācijas?

Kādas ir jūsu vecās diagnozes / slimības? \uline{Tuberkuloze}, \uline{hepatīts}, \uline{metaboliskais sindroms}, diabēts?

Vai jums bija endoskopija?
\end{paracol} 

\end{document}

Output

enter image description here

where challenges

  • at second item and onward, a small space before the line; I do not want to this. How to get this rid of this little space before new item?
  • The right-column is interfering the left-column. I do not want this. How can you stop auto-adjust of left-column in the expense of the right-column? At the end, better example with more data about the challenge.

Illustrating the second point better with the output:

enter image description here

where no messing up of text but autoadjust of the left-column with the right-column at the line 2.


I think the initial space at the beginning of lines can the source of the problems. How can you have lines without the initial space?

1
  • 1
    For removing indentation use \setlength{\parindent}{0pt}˛., however you have problem with hyphenation of words "syndrome", "sindroms" etc.
    – Zarko
    Sep 28, 2015 at 14:53

1 Answer 1

1

With \setlength{\parindent}{0pt} I remove indentation of sentences in parcol environment and manually add hyphenation possibilities to words syndrome and sindroms. After this changes of your MWE I obtain the following result:

enter image description here

Code:

\documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{paracol}
    \usepackage{ulem}
    \usepackage{fontspec}
    \usepackage{newunicodechar}
\newunicodechar{ī}{i\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ā}{a\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ē}{e\char\string"0304 }
\newunicodechar{ū}{u\char\string"0304 }

    \begin{document}
\section{Latvian Practice}
\begin{paracol}{2}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
What operations have you had before the last operation?

What are your old diagnoses/diseases? 
\uline{Tuberculosis}, \uline{hepatitis}, \uline{metabolic syn\-drome}, diabetes?

Have you had endoscopy?
\switchcolumn
Kādas operācijas jums bija pirms pēdējās operācijas?

Kādas ir jūsu vecās diagnozes/slimības? \uline{Tuberkuloze}, \uline{hepatīts}, \uline{metaboliskais sin\-droms}, diabēts?

Vai jums bija endoskopija?
\end{paracol}
    \end{document}

If you like to have larger vertical distance between paragraphs (sentences), then add \setlength{\parskip}{1ex}. Instead 1ex you can select other distance according to your taste.

2
  • Great! Looks much better! Thank you! Any way to make this setting a general rule for document? Sep 28, 2015 at 15:00
  • 1
    @Masi, yes, move \setlength{\parindent}{0pt} (and \setlength{\parskip}{1ex}) in document preamble. For hyphenation you can form file width hyphenated word, which are not considered in hyphenation pattern (it should be included in your LaTeX installation) or do this manually (if in question is only few words),
    – Zarko
    Sep 28, 2015 at 15:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .