Page Layout ⇒ Lay out Glosses in the Margin for a Play

[dagoss]

I am typesetting a play and I want to include glosses, a short one or two word definition, for uncommon words, similar to the Norton Shakespeare. Some of the text is prose; some is verse. The result will have a symbol next to the word being glossed, and off to the side of the page will be the gloss itself. Most lines are about the length of 5 iambs.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[twoside,10pt]{book}

\setlength{\parindent}{0in}

\newcommand{\dialogue}[2]{\hangindent=1in \makebox[1in][r]{#1\hspace{0.1in}}#2}
\newcommand{\anote}[1]{$^{\circ}$\marginpar{#1}}

\begin{document}

\dialogue{Bob}{I am Bob and I am very boring.\\
I sometimes use recondite\anote{obscure} words for fun.}

\end{document}

The text in \anote{} should be to the right of the text on all pages.

Thoughts on the best way to do this?

EDIT:
I played with the page layout settings to get what I want using marginpars for the glosses, but only on recto pages; on verso pages it is still appearing on the wrong side and I don't know how to reverse the text to the other side. According to The Companion, however, changing the layout using \setlength should only be done in the preamble; I need to do it in the body, since only the text of the play should be set this way.

[nlct]

The margin switch for recto/verso pages is governed by the @mparswitch conditional. If you set it to false, all the marginal notes will be on the right.

Code: Select all

\documentclass[twoside,10pt]{book}

\makeatletter
\@mparswitchfalse
\makeatother

\setlength{\parindent}{0in}

\newcommand{\dialogue}[2]{\hangindent=1in
\makebox[1in][r]{#1\hspace{0.1in}}#2}
\newcommand{\anote}[1]{$^{\circ}$\marginpar{#1}}

\begin{document}

\dialogue{Bob}{I am Bob and I am very boring.\\
I sometimes use recondite\anote{obscure} words for fun.}

\newpage

\dialogue{Bob}{I am Bob and I am very boring.\\
I sometimes use recondite\anote{obscure} words for fun.}

\end{document}

Regards
Nicola Talbot