Indesign CS6 Text in 2 columns, alternating paragraphs, keeping aligned.

Hi @shirleen26814689m8t5:

The table limitations: besides having to put your content into tables, cells can't break across columns so you may end up with big gaps at the bottom of the pages.

But these two are the only two options I can think of without some sort of scripting help.

~Barb

You're probably better off using a table

It's manual - maybe some clever scripter can grab alternating paragraph styles and assemble into a table. 

So you'd need a paragraph style for English and paragraph style for other language. 

I'd setup firstly the Parent Style - call it Parent Language or something

Then create the English version of the Paragraph Style and Base it on the Parent Language style

Same with the other language. 

So if you make a change to the Parent Language the same change is also done in both styles.

Two column table? 

Hi @shirleen26814689m8t5:

You might consider using a baseline grid to help with the alignment between the two columns, but there's no automatic feature to start all new paragraphs at the same vertical position. Is one language routinely shorter than the other? If so, and if you use a baseline grid, I think would set up multiple body paragraphs for the shorter language, one with no space above, one with one line above, one with two, one with three, etc. And assign them to push the shorter language down the page to line up with the next paragarph in the longer language. 

This will be messy after editing, so perhaps wait until both languages have been through editing before trying to line them up.

~Barb