How Do I Create a Side By Side Document In a 2 Columns Pages Document?

Comments: 2 Responses to “How Do I Create a Side By Side Document In a 2 Columns Pages Document?”

Gary Rosenzweig

2 years ago

This isn't easy to do. One way is to use Page Layout mode, not Word Processing mode. So start a new document and do Page Layout mode right away. Then you'll need to create two text boxes: one for the left, and one for the right. They are separate so put the text you need on the left, and other text on the right. Make sure this looks just like you want it.

Now, for page two, you have to copy and paste the text boxes from page 1. Then you need to link the left side of page 1 to the left side of page 2. Same for the two right side text boxes.

Then repeat for each page until you have all of the text. You can use breaks to force some text to jump to the next text box if you need to do that to keep things on the left and right in sync.

This will be easy enough to do if you have 2 pages, or 10, or even 20. But it is going to get tiring if you have more. Not sure what you are dealing with in that regard.

See https://macmost.com/creating-linked-text-boxes-in-pages.html for a tutorial on linked text boxes.

Another way to go is to stick with Word Processing and set the body text to 2 columns. Then put the text you want on the left, then a Column Break, then the text you want on the right, then another Column Break (or Page Break) to go to the next page. Alternate between languages.

Doing it this way will create problems if you want to insert or remove text in the future as it could throw things out of sync.

Alexandre van Meerbeke

2 years ago

Gary,
Thanks a lot for these tips. I will practice with them and most important how it reacts when exported to MS Word to share it!