Create lines for making notes?

Question

I would like to create a "study draft" PTXprint configuration that provides notetaking/note-making lines on half of the page. You could think of this as a 2-column layout with one column (on either side or inside/outside) being lines for making notes. I am looking for a system that would enable many teams to do their own work.

Can you think of a hook or macro that, upon reaching the end of one column would, after a column break of some type, create an even column full of lines until the end of the column, and then resume the text at the beginning of the next page (i.e., the next column of a 2-column layout)? If not, could you think of some other way to make something like this possible?

Thanks for your help!

PS.  I tried creating a diglot, with a dummy Paratext project full of lines, but the lines left awkward holes due to differences in length from the parallel text. I suppose I could try putting a PDF background in with a half page of lines, but that would require extra instructions and steps for the team regarding acquiring and arranging the PDF on each workstation.

Answer 1

I think I worked something out that gives me what I'm looking for. On A5 paper, I used a Binding Gutter of 45mm, selected Outer Gutter, and then selected the Marks & Guides, then specifically the Grid (Graph Paper). In the UI, I selected the color, and I turned the minor divisions line thickness to zero.

I then copied the entire "\doGraphPaper" function from the "ptx-cropmarks.tex" file and pasted it into the "ptxprint-mods.tex" field. I then modified it to make it work for me.

I turned the vertical lines off by basically undoing them, and then I changed the horizontal lines into what I wanted them to be. I lined up the top line with the "Horizontal Rule" (from the UI's Margins on the Layout tab) by changing the top offset. Because I wanted to use the outer gutter, I used an "\ifodd\pageno...\else" strategy to set the lines for one side and the other separately. The "\GraphPaperY" property can be defined to change the space between the lines. Again, I based the numbers on using A5 paper.

Here's the code I added into "ptxprint-mods.tex":

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\def\doGraphPaper{%
  \bgroup\topskip=0pt\baselineskip=0pt\parindent=0pt\everypar{}\relax
    \def\GraphPaperYoffset{1.81cm}
    %vertical rules
    %
    \def\th@sgprule{Major}%
    \def\gp@type{GraphPaper}%
    \count255=\GraphPaperMajorDiv
    \dimen1=\GraphPaperX
    \dimen2=\pdfpagewidth
    \dimen3=\pdfpageheight
    \dimen0=\GraphPaperYoffset
    % \advance\dimen3 by -\dimen0
    \advance\dimen3 by -50\dimen0
    \advance\dimen2 by -2\dimen1
    \advance\dimen2 by -\GraphPaperXoffset
    \setbox0=\hbox{\kern\GraphPaperXoffset\gp@vrule}%
    \gp@step
    \gp@vrules
    \vbox to 0pt{\hbox to 0pt{\unhbox 0\gp@vrule\hss}\vss}%
    % Horizontal rules
    %
    \def\th@sgprule{Major}%
    \count255=\GraphPaperMajorDiv
    \def\GraphPaperY{0.3535mm}% For less space between lines
    \dimen1=\GraphPaperY
    \dimen2=\pdfpageheight
    \advance\dimen2 by -\dimen1

    \ifodd\pageno
    \dimen3=.5\pdfpagewidth
    \def\GraphPaperXoffset{9.5cm}% Beginning of line
    \dimen0=\GraphPaperXoffset
    \advance\dimen3 by -0.325\dimen0 % leave 1cm between end of line and right margin

    \else
    \dimen3=\pdfpagewidth
    \def\GraphPaperXoffset{1.0cm}
    \dimen0=\GraphPaperXoffset
    \advance\dimen3 by -10.5\dimen0 % leave 1cm between end of line and inside margin
    \fi

    \setbox0=\vbox{\kern\GraphPaperYoffset\gp@hrule}%
    \gp@step
    \gp@hrules
    \vbox to 0pt{\unvbox 0\vss}%
    \cp@p\global\let\l@stgprule\empty
  \egroup
}

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I'm sure it could be done more elegantly! I was trying to learn on the fly and use what was already there. But this is the layout that came from it:

Comments

I would like to know how best to remove the last line on the page (on both sides).

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Nice work, Alex! I'll let the TeX gurus answer your final question about how to suppress the last line on each page. Having seen that this is possible, I am guessing others will want to be able to do something similar (without too much of the pain); so I guess it will eventually become a snippet or have some UI with some basic options to enable/disable with ease and set line spacing etc.

Answer 2

OK, so basically on the first reading it sounds like you want a narrow single column layout, with the 'unused' space being filled with lines. The hook you're looking for is possibly to call a line-drawing macro from the \doLines macro, which is used just before sticking the laid up text on the page. It gets called to draw the graph-paper and/or grid lines that are available on the layout tab. If you're going to use that, and you feel like doing some TeX programming, then copying the (roughly) last 15 lines of doGraphPaper in ptx-cropmarks.tex is probably an excellent starting place.

But... the problem comes with figures and notes.  Should they be the 'full page width' or just the width of your text? And what about the portion of text that's normally full width (book intros, etc). If the answer to anything is 'full width' then you're actually asking for a cross between the two column and single column layout routines, and it gets significantly more complicated.

Comments

Hi Alex, I have often wondered about this idea, and how easy/hard it would be to do. I'm interested to hear how far you get, and whether we need to (eventually) make this another option (or even just a code snippet) that people could import and tweak for their requirements.
I also wonder about how the headers need to appear - whether they will need to be adjusted as well.
Presumably you need the lines to be mirrored so that they're always on the outer edge of the page.
I am guessing DG will be willing to help out if you find yourself out of your depth.

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Thanks, @Mark P and @DG. I created an A5 PDF in InDesign using a table with 3 columns, putting no lines in the middle column. I saved that PDF and put it in as the Ornamental Decorations > Border > PDF Border (selecting "Full Page"). Then I put that PDF in our org's model project's "Shared > ptxprint" folder. That way, the background PDF is available through a Send/Receive to all of our teams. As soon as they share the configuration from the model project to their own, they have immediate and fluid access to the PDF as well (without messing with putting extra files into the proper location, as I had feared).

We do not plan to put intros or cross references in these texts, so the formatting on those does not seem to be a problem.

If this works for us, I think I will not need to try my hand at the TeX just yet.

I will email you a screenshot and an archive. Thanks again!

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In my original question, @DG, I was looking for 1 column of text on one side of the page and then lines for the other half of the page. Since PTXprint only gives control for a "side margin," having a 1-column layout requires that such a column be centered. @DG, from your answer, it seems like you may have the same view on that.

My solution, then (as stated above), gives three columns: two sections of lines on the sides (delivered via the background PDF) with a column of text in the middle (formatted by PTXprint).

As a follow up, if the lines-to-text ratio in such a layout seems too high, it is also possible to get 2 columns of text with a column of lines in the middle. To do this, I maxed-out the gutter on a 2-column layout. [By the way, the UI limits the user to a max of 40mm, and then it only gave me roughly 31mm in the PDF.] Then, I can create a custom PDF that gives lines in the center, and the PTXprint configuration gives me a 2-column layout that straddles a column of lines that are about double the width of a normal center-column cross reference area. This gives much more of a normal look, which may or may not be desired for our Scripture Engagement purposes.

Perhaps the 1-column-of-text layout could be used for teams/groups that want to have more room to write, and the 2-column configuration could be used for groups that are more cost-conscious and won't want to be doing as much writing.

PS. @Mark P, regarding the headers, we want this to look different from regularly printed Scripture texts, so a centered reference range seems to do the trick for either 1-column or 2-column layouts.

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I had another idea overnight (totally untested): The polyglot-simplepages plugin can be told to do alternative column layouts including skipping columns. If you did a diglot of the text with nothing or with itself (assuming the UI allows this), and specified that the only column to print was the primary/column L (\polyglotpages{L}) then the background page / rules macro could provide lines on the other part. This would mean that the headers and footers would not be affected, and nor would periphery materials.

Answer 3

A comment as an answer, because comments can't have pictures:
Regarding the side margin issue (mentioned in a comment), I'd like to point you at this bit of the (full-view) layout tab:



The binding gutter is intended to allow the text area to be offset away from the binding. There's nothing to stop that offset being half a page. If you click on 'outer gutter', then the page is non-symmetrical in the other direction (big gap at the unbound edge).

Answer 4

I love this idea of a note-taking bible. Maybe this could be considered as a feature to add into a new version of PTX Print in the future.

There are several use-cases for such feature. One for newer translation work to print out dummy versions for notetaking on improvements. 

Below is an example of one popular layout of note-taking that gives a column on the side of the text.

Answer 5

In such bibles, what happens at the end of a book where the text doesn't fill the page? Do the notes lines continue to the bottom of the page or do they stop at the bottom of the text?