Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!bu-cs!bucsb!bucsf!jbw
From: jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Nice twocolumn style
Message-ID: <JBW.89Nov14223155@bucsf.bu.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 89 03:31:55 GMT
References: <702@tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl>
Organization: Boston University Computer Science Department
Lines: 79

In article <702@tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl> wsineel@lso.win.tue.nl (e.vriezekolk) writes:

   I want to use (La)TeX for making a magazine. I want two
   columns, but run into problems when using LaTeX's standaard
   twocolumn option. There are two problems.

   First:
   ======
		   When typesetting articles, I want something like

			   article-1  article-1
			   article-1  article-1
			   article-1  article-1
			   article-1  article-1
			   article-1  article-1

			   Title-2
			   article-2  article-2
			   article-2  article-2
			   article-2  article-2
			   article-2  article-2
			   article-2  article-2

	   When using standard LaTeX, the first article comes in the
	   first column, and the second article in the second.

None of this is easy with TeX or LaTeX without a certain amount of TeX
programming skill.  You need to modify LaTeX's output routine.  Basically,
you want to call the new output routine after each article, in addition to
at the end of each column.  When the output routine is called at the end
of the first article, the column (or columns) that has already been
collected will need to be resplit into two columns of equal depth.  An
example of how to do this lies somewhere in the depths of the TeXbook.

When you start building the columns of the second article, you'll need to
reduce the target column height to correspond to the amount of space left
on the page.  When the two columns of the second article are finished,
they should be put below the two columns of the first article in a big
box.  Of course, you want to do this in a general manner that will work
for any number of articles on one page.

   Second:
   =======
		   I want floats to go over column boundaries, like

			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttex+-----------+exttext
			   texttex|  (float)  |exttext
			   texttex+-----------+exttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext
			   +-----------------+texttext
			   |    (float)      |texttext
			   |                 |texttext
			   +-----------------+texttext
			   texttexttext   texttexttext

		   which is impossible with standard LaTeX macros.

This is more difficult.  It can be done in TeX, but I wouldn't want to
have to do it myself (without a sufficiently large monetary incentive).
This part is easier in some other publishing programs.

   I'm not a LaTeX expert, so I can't make the necessary macros
   myself. Somewhere must be a TeX expert who has solved my
   problems already.

Your first problem has probably been done before.  However, I doubt anyone
has persevered enough to solve your second problem in TeX.  (If someone
has, I would be delighted to hear of it.)

-- 
Joe Wells <jbw@bucsf.bu.edu>
jbw%bucsf.bu.edu@bu-it.bu.edu
...!harvard!bu-cs!bucsf!jbw