parallel
I would like to create parallel text in multiple languages. With some success, I have tried some existing packages to do that.
However, one thing I found very difficult is to align each paragraph but use different font sizes and (thus) independent line spacing for each language. This would be useful for languages where the texts are very different in length (for example Chinese and English).
Any ideas on how to do this?
I think parallel is the best way to go, but doing it the way I want to is a bit tricky in pure TeX. After much thinking, I ended up writing a bash script to do it. It's not the most elegant solution (you can call it ugly if that makes you feel better), but it does the trick.
Here is my script:
#!/bin/bash
CHAPDIR="chapters"
SPLITDIR="splits"
# Split all files
for l in fr en; do
mkdir -p $SPLITDIR/$l
for c in $CHAPDIR/$l/*.tex; do
f=$(basename $c)
num=${f%%_*}
csplit --quiet --prefix $SPLITDIR/$l/${num}_ --suffix-format=%02d.tex --elide-empty-files $c /^$/+1 {*}
done
done
# Generate document
for c in $CHAPDIR/fr/*.tex; do
f=$(basename $c)
chnum=${f%%_*}
sfile="$SPLITDIR/${chnum}.tex"
# Make chapter title
#echo "\input{$SPLITDIR/en/${chnum}_00}" > $sfile
#sed -i 's@\\chapter@\\chapstyle\\chapheadstyle@' $SPLITDIR/fr/${chnum}_00.tex
#echo "\input{$SPLITDIR/fr/${chnum}_00}" >> $sfile
enchap=$(sed -e 's@\\chapter{\(.*\)}@\1@' $SPLITDIR/en/${chnum}_00.tex)
frchap=$(sed -e 's@\\chapter{\(.*\)}@\1@' $SPLITDIR/fr/${chnum}_00.tex)
echo "\\chapter{$enchap \\\\$frchap}" > $sfile
echo '\normalfont' >> $sfile
echo '\begin{Parallel}{2in}{2in}' >> $sfile
for pfr in $SPLITDIR/fr/${chnum}_*.tex; do
secname=$(basename $pfr .tex)
secnum=${secname##*_}
[[ "x$secnum" = "x00" ]] && continue
pen=${pfr/fr/en}
# Replace chapter with \Huge, section with \Large
sed -i 's@\\section\*@\\secstyle@' $pfr
# Remove lettrines
sed -i 's@\\chlettrine{\(.*\)}{\(.*\)}@\1\2@' $pfr
if [ ! -f "$pen" ]; then
echo "E: Missing file $pen"
exit 1
fi
echo '\ParallelPar' >> $sfile
echo "\ParallelLText{\selectlanguage{english}\input{$pen}}" >> $sfile
echo "\ParallelRText{\selectlanguage{french}\input{$pfr}}" >> $sfile
done
echo '\end{Parallel}' >> $sfile
done
I've moved my translated text to chapters/fr/ and added original chapters in chapters/en/. The script creates a splits/fr/ and splits/en/ directories (for the note, splits/ has got an 's' because I've got a rule called "split" in my Makefile), splits the chapters in chapters/* by paragraph (using csplit) and reassembles the chapters in splits/, using the parallel package.
The master document then contains the call to load the parallel package, as well as the \input calls:
% All chapters
\pagewiselinenumbers
\input{splits/01}
\input{splits/02}
\input{splits/03}
\input{splits/04}
Running ./split.sh followed by pdflatex masterdoc.tex generates the document with split chapters.
And here is how it renders:
Okay, here's a hack that uses atbegshi to add a header to parcolumns:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{parcolumns}
\usepackage{atbegshi}
\newcommand{\pcheaderfmt}[1]{{\large\sf\textbf{#1}}}
\newcommand{\pcheader}{}
\AtBeginShipout{\pcheader}
\begin{document}
\section{Latin and Piglatin}
\renewcommand{\pcheader}
{\par\noindent\pcheaderfmt{Latin}\hfill\pcheaderfmt{Piglatin}%
\vspace{0.5ex}\hrule\vspace{1.5ex}}
\pcheader
\begin{parcolumns}{2}
%
\colchunk{Latin}
%
\colchunk{Piglatin}
\colplacechunks
%
\colchunk{Latin}
%
\colchunk{Piglatin}
%
\end{parcolumns}
\renewcommand{\pcheader}{}
\section{English and Pigenglish}
\renewcommand{\pcheader}
{\par\noindent\pcheaderfmt{English}\hfill\pcheaderfmt{Pigenglish?}%
\vspace{0.5ex}\hrule\vspace{1.5ex}}
\pcheader
\begin{parcolumns}{2}
%
\colchunk{English}
%
\colchunk{Pigenglish}
%
\end{parcolumns}
\renewcommand{\pcheader}{}
\end{document}
Best Answer
I've used parcolumns package for something similar.