How to anchor two columns of text to each other.

[JRC_User]

Hello everyone,

I have a document with two columns of text side by side that spans many pages. I need to anchor these columns to each other so that if I add a line of more of text to one the other will move down the same number of lines so that they continue to be in alignment. How can I do this?

Just in case this is relevant both columns are threaded accross the multiple pages of the document (In other words, the right column on page 1 flows to the right column on page 2 and then to page 3, and so on. The left column on page 1 flows to the left column on page 2 and then to page 3, and so on).

Thank you in advance for your help. 

[Steve Werner]

I don't think it's possible using an automatic system. You can manually anchor one block of text with one location in another thread of text. But there's no way to be able to anchor columns next to each other if you can arbitrarily "add a line or more of text" to each column. How would the anchoring locations be determined?

[JRC_User]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your help and your reply.

In answer to your question my idea was to use any point on both columns to anchor them to one another so if I added lines or text to one column an equivalent space or the same number of lines would automatically be added to the other column so all lines that were in alignment before would continue to be in alignment. In other words, if I added three lines of text to the column on the left the column on the right would also automatically add three lines of text to itself in order to keep all previous or pre-existing items in alignment. I hope my explanation is making sense.

Do you have any ideas if this can be done? 

Thank you in advance.

[Steve Werner]

I don't, and no one else replied to your question. This should push your query to the top of the list again so let's see if anyone else has some feedback.

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi drjchamberlain,

what could work is a table with two columns that flows from page to page.

Every cell in a table column contains only one chunk of text that has its counter part in the cell next to it in the same table row.

The issue with this concept:

Table cells cannot break between threaded text frames.

But you can vote for and comment on this feature request that many have:

Option to split table rows across pages
April 05, 2018

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests/suggestions/33854788-op...

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Steve Werner]

But don't hold your breath about the feature request, I'm afraid. Sometimes requests can sit there a long time. 

[JRC_User]

Laubender,

Thank you for sharing this information. This seems like a step in the right direction. The only thing I see as a problem is the fact that table cells cannot break between threaded text frames.

Independent of the solution I believe this is problem that Adobe needs to address in InDesign. My case does involve two parallel columns of text that flow accross multiple pages. Every time I add text to one column all the items move down and the pairing or alignment of elements between these two columns is broken accross the entire length of my document. As long as we can anchor elements on one column to elements on the other so that they are always aligned with each other, the solution should work.

Thank you again.

[FRIdNGE]

Just For Comment:

4 years ago, I've posted the beta version of the script I show in this video, aligining with just 1 click all the paras of the 2 threaded flows:

… in July 2020, I've achieved for a client its version 43 giving to the user much more essential manual controls.

Here, a partial screenshot of its UI:

About "table row split":

(^/)  The Jedi

[DIMIS LOU]

I wonder if you give for free or sell your script because I am very interested in its result. I export my work to pdf AND epub form. I used to work on a two column table spanning in all pages. I wonder if your script will work to epub form