Text Formatting ⇒ Two language on facing pages

[kernowsteve]

Hi all,

I've got two text files in two different languages, and need to interleave them so that each facing page contains the same block of text, English on the left and the other language on the right. Is there an easy (or even a medium-difficulty!) way to achieve this with LaTeX please?

TIA,

Steve.

[localghost]

Definitely a job for the parallel package.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,titlepage,twoside]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman,english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{parallel}

\title{Two languages on facing pages}
\author{kernowsteve}

\begin{document}
  \maketitle
  \begin{Parallel}[p]{}{}
    \ParallelLText{%
%      \selectlanguage{english}
      \blinddocument
    }
    \ParallelRText{%
      \selectlanguage{ngerman}
      \blinddocument
    }
  \end{Parallel}
\end{document}

Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[kernowsteve]

Thanks Thorsten, that looks great. Is it possible to \import the entire two language files using the parallel package, or is it necessary to do it page by page?

[localghost]

[...] Is it possible to \import the entire two language files using the parallel package, or is it necessary to do it page by page?

I'm afraid I can't follow you. There are no language files imported and I don't understand what you mean with »page by page« in this context.

[kernowsteve]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I meant to ask: with the parallel package, can I enter all the text in one language (the whole book) in one block, then all of the other language in a block, or is it necessary to enter individual left-right paragraph pairs for the entire book?

[localghost]

I thought that I have shown that with the example in my last reply. There are two entire documents in two different languages. So from my understanding you can typeset a whole document on each side. What I have forgotten is to reset the »section« counter in the foreign language part.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,titlepage,twoside]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman,english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{parallel}

\title{Two languages on facing pages}
\author{kernowsteve}

\begin{document}
  \maketitle
  \begin{Parallel}[p]{}{}
    \ParallelLText{%
%      \selectlanguage{english}
      \blinddocument
    }
    \ParallelRText{%
      \setcounter{section}{0}
      \selectlanguage{ngerman}
      \blinddocument
    }
  \end{Parallel}
\end{document}

But during further tests I faced some problems with typesetting on facing pages. They are shown in the below code.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,titlepage,twoside]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman,english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{parallel}

\title{Two languages on facing pages}
\author{kernowsteve}

\begin{document}
  \maketitle
  \begin{Parallel}[p]{}{}
    \ParallelLText{%
%      \selectlanguage{english}
      \blindtext
    }
    \ParallelRText{%
      \selectlanguage{ngerman}
      \blindtext[2]
    }
    \ParallelPar
  \end{Parallel}
\end{document}

Obviously a misbehaviour of the package and worth a note to the author. The package seems to be still in beta status (for seven years now!). Perhaps the author is not planning further development.