Page Layout ⇒ Getting vertical Position of the following text?

[CaptainProton]

My task is to create sample solutions for exercises. To be flexible, I set up two environments "question" and "solution":

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\newenvironment{question}{\itshape}{}
\newenvironment{solution}{\\[2mm]\marginnote{-}}{}

Each solution is indicated with a dash in the margin. When the environments are used as follows, there is no problem and the dash is at the same vertical position as the beginning text of the answer:

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\begin{question}
  Question?
\end{question}\begin{solution}
  Answer
\end{solution}

ok

ok.jpg (17.74 KiB) Viewed 2549 times

The obvious problem arises when the answer is for example a table or an enumeration:

problem.jpg (17.13 KiB) Viewed 2549 times

My "solution" was to create several environments, one for tables, one for enumerations, one for images, one for equations, etc. and adjust the vertical alignment manually. However this isn't very elegant and I guess there must be a better way. What would you do?

[localghost]

The examdesign class (or related packages) may be better for this purpose.


Best regards
Thorsten

[CaptainProton]

The examdesign class (or related packages) may be better for this purpose.

Thank you very much for your answer. I'm new to LaTeX and I'm impressed by the amount of possibilities. It seems there is a package for just about everything. However in this case, I don't think the examdesign package will solve the problem with the misaligned text in the margin (which is by the way just a small marker to assist the lecturer in quickly finding the sample solutions).

[localghost]

I think at this point a minimal working example (MWE) is necessary just to see what you are doing. But I won't be able to look at it until after the Xmas holidays.

[CaptainProton]

I think at this point a minimal working example (MWE) is necessary just to see what you are doing. But I won't be able to look at it until after the Xmas holidays.

Here you are:

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\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,fleqn]{article}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{marginnote}
\setlength{\parindent}{0em}

\reversemarginpar
\newenvironment{question}{\itshape}{}
\newenvironment{solution}{\\\marginnote{->}}{}

\begin{document}
  \begin{question}
    Question
  \end{question}\begin{solution}
    Solution with correctly aligned marker on the left
  \end{solution}\\
  
  \begin{question}
    Question
  \end{question}\begin{solution}
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item The marker should be at the same vertical position like this text
    \end{enumerate}
  \end{solution}
\end{document}