I'm new to LaTeX and I'm trying to use it to write a spotlessly-typesetted draft of my novel (from the rough, typewritten hard draft) for MFA program applications, and eventually to send to publishers. I realize that with respect to the latter, many strongly prefer MS Word, but Word simply can't do the things I need done.
So. Here's my current problem (plus a couple other questions about related issues). Sorry in advance for the long post--please bear with me!
Half of my chapters (the odd-numbered ones) use a layout in which any given page has two columns of varying length, as well as outer margin notes. I need the wider of the two columns to always be flush with the inner margin such that, for any double-page spread, the wider columns will be next to each other on opposite pages, with the narrower columns on opposite sides of the central pair of wider columns. Basically, the text for the wider columns is its own separate thing, and the text for the narrower columns is commentary. (This of course means they need to remain separated from each other while having their respective texts flow continuously across page breaks--which won't be a problem, given that they're columns and not boxes, right?).
The \parcolumns package seems like a good choice as far as the differing width issue, but I can't seem to find any information about how to use it to form this layout that I need. (In other words, it seems that, from what I've been able to find, the first column in \parcolumns will always be on the same side). Would it be possible to write some set of conditionals directly into the code of parcolumns itself so that the package would do this automatically? Or could one just put all that in the preamble of the document?
(Amidst a lot of research while not writing this, I noticed on p. 16 of the article/guide for the \multicol environment, they coded \moveright\multicol@leftmargin
as the first in a series of operations to go about switching the order of the columns for R->L languages. Could this maybe play a role?)
[REMOVED as irrelevant; see UPDATE]
Finally: a vital caveat I should mention here is that I need to be able to put some sort of smaller text boxes within the narrower of the two columns that are, say, 0.6\linewidth
of the narrower column, are flush with the inner margin of the column, then have the body of the column's text wrap around them. Also, because I've developed my own alternate format for basic prose writing which uses non-indented text blocks of varying widths to distinguish between the text of the narration (full line width) versus that of dialogue (REMOVED due to improvement; see UPDATE) I need to be able to use these commands in the wide column in question here...which, as I've learned from lots of reading, just wouldn't work using longtables. Thus, these chapters absolutely must be assembled using actual columns.
UPDATE:
Upon further reading (both of posts on this site, as well as careful inspection of the Implementation section of the user guide for \parcolumns), I've discovered the \ifoddpage package. So, to add a bit more specificity here, might it work to make the following modifications to parcolumns.sty?
a) Add \RequirePackage{ifoddpage}
to the preamble.
b) Between lines 95 and 96, set \checkoddpage \@ifoddpage{
(lines 96-173, with the "<" in \loop\ifnum\count@<\pc@columncount%
of lines 96, 111, 125, 144, and 164 changed to "=")}{
(original lines 96-173)}
, or some equivalent conditional.
I'm sure there must be some much more sophisticated, less code-clunky way of doing this, but I'm not sure how...Also, should there be any other section of the code set under the conditional? Is \ifoddpage even capable of handling conditionals of this size? And is there something important I'm missing about a command like \checkoddpage
, like I would have to write some extra code for the package to be able to even detect page numbers?
I've gotten everything else more or less figured out, from the minipage/wrapfigure boxes in my first columns to the margin notes, to a better set of commands that will allow text to flow continuously across pages for my alternate prose format more generally (using the adjustwidth environment from \changepage, instead of using \parbox...I'm almost there. I just need these columns to flip. Any non-\parcolumns alternatives to suggest?
UPDATE #2
Per Stephan Lehmke's request/suggestion, here is the code and images of the PDF produced.
\documentclass[11pt,letterpage,twosides]{bookest}
%
\geometry{textheight=9in,vmarginratio=1:1,outermargin=1.5in,innermargin=.5in,%
marginparwidth=1.25in,marginparsep=.2in}
\usepackage{parcolumns}
\usepackage{marginnote}
\usepackage{wrapfig}
\usepackage{lipsum}
%
% % % % % [Many lines of new commands have been omitted, as they are not relevant here.]
%
%%%%% For use in \parcolumns environment
\newcommand{\warfo}{\begin{wrapfigure}{o}[.15in]{1.5in} \begin{minipage}[t]{1.4in} %
\noindent \Large}
\newcommand{\warfi}{\begin{wrapfigure}{i}[.15in]{1.5in} \begin{minipage}[t]{1.4in} %
\noindent \Large}
\newcommand{\wraf}{\end{minipage} \vspace{-.265in} \end{wrapfigure}}
\newcommand{\stm}{\marginnote}
%
\begin{document}
%
\chapter{Sample Experimental Chapter Layout}
%
\begin{parcolumns}[sloppy=true,sloppyspaces=true,nofirstindent=true,colwidths={1=2.8in, %
2=3.5in}]{2}
%
\colchunk[1]{\small \indent \lipsum[14] \warfi{Sample wrapped text box, using a minipage %
inside a wrapfig environment.} \wraf \lipsum[15] \warfo{Another sample wrapped text box, %
placed along the inner side of the \\ column.} \wraf \lipsum[16] \lipsum[17]}
%
\colchunk[2]{\Large \indent \stm{\normalsize \textbf{Sample margin note, always to be on %
the outer margin. \\ ---------- \\ Aside from the placement of the margin note, the layout %
of this odd page is incorrect. The order of the two columns should be switched, so that %
the larger/wider column is placed along the inner margin, and the smaller/thinner column %
is placed along the outer margin.}} \lipsum[10] \lipsum[11] \lipsum[12] \lipsum[13] %
\stm{\textbf{\normalsize The layout of this even page is correct, with the larger column %
on the inner margin and the smaller column on the outer one, with the wrapped text box on %
the inner edge of the smaller column. \\ ---------- \\ However, can I suppress this extra%
line between paragraphs in the inner column?}} \lipsum[14]}
%
\end{parcolumns}
%
\end{document}
Here are the pages produced. Everything is explained in the margin notes.
Note the blank line between larger, inner paragraphs on p.2--How can I get rid of that breaking when entering a \marginnote
?