Reledmac Footnote configuration

Question

Dear Fellow \LaTex{}nocrats,

Thank you very much for helping so much with getting my thesis set up.

Using the following code for Reledmac below, I am trying to achieve (add the following):

a) reduce the space between the 2 columns in the footnotes so that with a max of four digits, there is still 2em between the right side of the left column and the 1000 marker of the reference to the right column b) At the moment, the footnotes are displayed in the following way:

        Main text runs here, Main text continues here
        ---------------------------------------------
        99 First line left column       101 First line second column
        Second line left column         Second line right column
        100 Second fn first line
        Second fn second

What would be great, is if it were possible to have it displayed like this:

        Main text runs here, Main text continues here...
        ---------------------------------------------...
     99 Line one of fn 1 left side     101 Line one of fn 1 right side.
        Line two of fn 1 left side         Line two of fn 1 right side   
    100 Line one of fn 2 left side     102 etc.
        Line two of fn 2 left side

c) even out the length of each column so that they are two similar sized blocks (e.g. by enabling column-break in the last footnote of the left column, so that it extends over to the top of the right one

Thank you for your time and help!

PS: If eledmac were any easier, I could resort to it as well

MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{report}

\usepackage{reledmac}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\arrangementX[A]{twocol}
\colalignX{\justifying}
\makeatletter
\bhooknoteX[A]{\setstretch {\setspace@singlespace}}
\bhookgroupX[A]{\setstretch {\setspace@singlespace}}
\makeatother
\let\footnote\footnoteA

\usepackage{microtype}

\begin{document}

As we all know,\footnote{This is to demonstrate the space in between columns in a document's footnote environment that is set to two-columns in reledmac}
Cats and dogs don't necessarily get along\footnote{Thank you very much for your help in assisting with this query}


\end{document}

Answer 1

Preliminary remarks

1. your MWE is not working, you didn't ask for setspace package.
2. You don't need to load etoolbox, as reledmac already load it.
3. eledmac could not be simpler that reledmac, as the principle is to add more and more configuration compononent.

a. Space between column

reledmac don't define space between columns, but column witdh.

You could increase them using \hsizetwocolX (for familiar footnotes) and \Xhsizetwocol (for critical footnotes).

For example

\hsizetwocolX[A]{0.48\hsize}

See § 7.11.2 of the handbook (which is intitled Size of the columns…)

b. Footnote number setting

That is more complex, especially because I am not sure to understand your need. There is actually no configuration option for footnote mark, so you need to redefine some commands.

1. There is already no indent for the first line of a footnote (except if you ask explicitly for it)

2. You must put your footnote number if a box of constant size, redefining \normalfootfootmarkX:

   \renewcommand*{\normalfootfootmarkX}[1]{%
     \hbox to 1.25em{\hfill\textsuperscript{\@nameuse{@thefnmark#1}}}%
   }
   

3. You must add indentation for other line of the footnotes

   \hangindentX{1.3em}
   

(I don't understand exactly where the 0.05em shift comes from)

c. Last problem

I didn't understand your need. The column break is made to have automatically the same number of line of text in the two columns, with only only one line, eventually, of difference (2 lines on left and 1 line on right, or 2 lines of left and 2 lines of right, but never 3 lines on left and 1 line on right)