|
|
Posted by Els on 02/19/06 11:18
Paula Radetzky wrote:
> I am a linguist who works on aboriginal languages with very few
> speakers. I need to write down their folktales and translate *each*
> word separately, right under it. For example,
>
> Rubana-cu ya umusalu
> dawn-ed when rained
> 'When it dawned, it rained.'
>
> Obviously, the words in the first and second lines need to line up
> right under each other. Tables are good for that.
>
> The problem is with stories that are longer than one line. If I
> continue typing the story, I want the TABLE CELLS from Lines 1 AND 2 to
> wrap TOGETHER, as a pair. For example:
>
> Rubana-cu ya umusalu. Masi sumusumukulu kia. Maaru ucani.
> Ilaku ya
> dawn-ed when rained then enemy came exist
> one I tried
>
> turukuuka. Ku-aku acalia puritongatonga.
> kill not-I know throw.spear
>
> 'When it dawned, it rained. Then the enemy came. There was one that I
> tried to kill. But I didn't know how to throw the spear.'
>
> I don't want to create a new table for each line, because I often have
> to cut and past these folktales into documents with different page
> sizes, margins, etc. I don't want to have to redo the tables every
> time; I just want this wrapping capability.
>
> Does anybody know how to do this, or does anyone know how to work
> around this problem? Or a macro?
>
> I am trying to use NeoOffice, but if it works only in Word, I'll use
> that.
>
> Thanks a lot. You're helping to document and save dying languages!
You can't do that with a table.
I've made an example to show another option:
http://here.locusmeus.com/temp/paula.html
I've tested it in Opera, Firefox and IE6, but MacIE will probably make
the floats full width, resulting in only one set of words per line.
--
Els http://locusmeus.com/
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito.
- Renato Russo -
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|