[Sca-cooks] OT: need computer help -- typing parallel columns

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 21 Oct 2003, at 0:07, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Brighid ni Chiarain asked about seperete columns for translations so 
> that the original and translation could be directly opposite each other.
> 
> I've got real mixed feelings about this. While the double column sounds 
> good and probably works well in print publication, I'm not sure how 
> well it will work when published electronically. Yes, I have an 
> interest and a bias in this. :-)

Stefan, I'm sure that we can work something out.  Since it's a table, I should 
be able to copy and paste each column separately.  It really is much easier 
for me to have the texts parallel.  I don't mind scrolling up and down if I'm 
translating one recipe or passage for the list, but I can't work on a whole 
book that way.
 
> IF HTML can be done in such a way that when you 
> squeeze the page size down to narrower than the original width, the 
> text flows up and down in two columns then that will at least be 
> readable, although the one to one line to line correspondence is likely 
> to be lost.

If I do the copy-and-paste as mentioned above, you can put the English and 
Spanish in two different documents, if you have to.  There isn't an exact one-
to-one line correspondence, though the two texts stay fairly close.  In any 
case, I'm inserting page breaks between chapters.

> And when translated to text, the two column original may get totally 
> scrambled. Perhaps Word does a better job than I think it will. I don't 
> have a real high opinion of Word's ability to create good HTML. 

Someone has offered to do the conversion for me.

> I will 
> be switching back to my own programs for the Florilegium as soon as I 
> can rewrite them. But since they work from a text file only, they don't 
> pick up special characters such as accents or handle two column text 
> anyway.

The text has no accents, but it does have two special characters -- 'n' with a 
tilde (~) and the cedilla (a 'c' with a hook beneath it).

> Endnotes, using the special Word formatting tend to be a problem, at 
> least for me. Mostly because when translated to text, and I believe 
> HTML, Word simply loses the note. Not just the number. The entire note. 
> For your earlier "Libre del Coch" translation I had to go through and 
> replace each end note with a plain text version, making sure that the 
> numbering was still correct. If changed in the wrong order, Word 
> automatically renumbers the remaining end notes. Argh. All one hundred 
> plus endnotes.

So far I have very few endnotes, and I don't expect to have a lot.  There are 
errata, and I've been identifying the medical authorities that Nuñez cites, but I 
could put the latter in an appendix, I suppose.

> However, I will deal with what you are willing to give me. 

I might point out that I've only finished one chapter of 135.  It will be some 
time before we have to cross this particular bridge.  De Nola took me 7 
yeqars, although I took some longish breaks from it.

> If it can't 
> be translated from HTML or RTF cleanly into plain text then we'll just 
> have to drop the text format.  If two column HTML causes problems below 
> a certain width, then we may just have to live with that, although you 
> might want to select a column size which is set for a narrow screen. If 
> you are using a version of Word that generates HTML, usually Word 6.0 
> or Word 98 or better, then have Word write out the article as HTML, and 
> look at it before you spend a lot of time formatting it, and see how it 
> comes out.

I'm using Word '97 right now, but I'm sure I could access a newer version, 
and import the files into it.  Who knows? -- by that time I may have 
upgraded.  Or some other, better software may come along.  Or the horse 
may learn to sing.  :-)

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net