Page Layout ⇒ Add 'definitions' and change margins

[roelveldhuizen]

What I basically want to do is creating a document with text ( most obvious ) but I want to change the margin (left) so that the text contents will have a smaller page. Then I want to add some definitions or highlights that should be shown on the left side of the text.

I found a command which looks like what I want to do \marginpar. Could this be modified and be placed at the left and within the 'old' margin? And how?

To give a better idea ( hopefully) the document should look like this
| margin-left | definition | content | margin-right |

Thanks in advance

[gmedina]

Hi,

the example code below could give you some ideas. I used the geometry package to change the page layout; the idea is to use the space reserved to margin notes to write your definitions. I also used the marginnote package (and its homonymous command) to typeset the margin notes, since the results are better than those obtained with the standard \marginpar command.

Of course, feel free to modify my example according to your needs:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[marginparsep=16pt,marginparwidth=5cm,lmargin=8cm,%
  rmargin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{marginnote}

\reversemarginpar 

\begin{document}

\section{An important section}

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 

\subsection{Some subsection}

\marginnote{%
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text%
}
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

\subsection{Another subsection}
\marginnote{%
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 
}
text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
  
\end{document}