How can a table cell span more than one page?

Thanks for the confirmation and advice. I was using a 1row x 2 column table for translation work of a Russian book. I put a whole chapter of Russian in the left cell and mirror its translation into English in the right cell, keeping each paragraph adjacent to each other. It is so easy in MS Word but clearly not possible in Pages. Splitting the page into two ordinary columns (text, not table) only allows me to put the English text at the end of the Russian text and hope that it will flow into the second column and keep the respective paragraphs adjacent to each other. Not easy! I have also tried using Pages text boxes but also could not get them to flow from one page to another.

However, I have just downloaded OpenOffice onto my MacBook and that does allow the table cells to flow across multiple pages, just as I want. So .... I can continue to work on my MacBook but by using OpenOffice instead of Pages. It imports MS Word.doc files beautifully and I would suggest anyone struggling with tables in Pages to take advantage of the free OpenOffice download.

Many thanks, Peter.

Thanks, Peter. Okay, I have tried this but without too much success.

I set up a landscape, two column page and imported the Russian text. That resulted in 13 pages of Russian text, in both left and right columns. I then added the English at the end of the Russian and now have 26 pages in total. Then, as you suggest, I inserted a Column Break after the Russian. This forced the English to begin afresh on page 14.

Now I need to find a way of keeping all the Russian text in the left column of all the 26 pages so that I can have the corresponding English translation adjacent in the right column (for all pages 1 - 26). I have explored your suggestion of Layout Breaks but think I have either misunderstood you, or I am doing something fundamentally wrong!

Okay, so now I need to be a little more specific to help you visualize the problem. On my page 1, left column, I have three paragraphs of Russian. Para 4 begins close to the bottom of the left column and flows, as expected into the right-hand column of page 1. Now, if I insert a Layout Break at the end of para 3, I find paras 1-3 are uniformly shared across both the left and right columns. Para 4 stays in the left column, and understandably has moved up somewhat, but para 5, following correctly below para 4 in the left column now flows into the right column, following on from the end of para 3. There are no visual breaks, so now my page 1 left column reads paras 1, 2, first part of 3, then 4 and first part of 5, while the right column now shows the second part of para 3 and the the second part of para 5. This is confusing to understand and confusing to read. This is no good at all.

Inserting a Section Break after para 3 results in para 4 beginning in the left column of page 2 and the whole of the right column of page 1 remains blank. It also seems that that right column is now rendered inaccessible and so I will not be able to put the English of paras 1- 3 into it so that they are adjacent to the Russian paras 1-3 in the left column of page 1.

Inserting a Page Break instead of a Section Break produces the same effect.

In conclusion, I am still stumped. To keep all the Russian in the left column of all 26 pages, I would need to insert a page break at the end of every page .... but then there would seem to be no way to insert the English into the corresponding right-hand columns, beginning of course on page 1. I am surprised that such a fundamentally useful word-processing facility is so complex (or perhaps impossible) in Pages.

Thanks, again, Peter. I have to say that you have been more helpful and informed than any others that have tussled with me over this difficulty.

Thanks, Jeff. Yes I had considered doing that but many of the paragraphs are too big to be accommodated in one cell (and remain visible on one page). Of course I could split such paragraphs but then, when I have completed the translation of this Russian book for its author (over 500 pages) I will have to manually restore each paragraph and whilst that is possible, the thought of it is horribly time-consuming! There has to be an easier way of achieving two columns of text side-by-side mirroring each other... surely?

I had not thought of your second suggestion, re adding text boxes beside a single thin-margined 'column'. I might have a go at that. So far, being a new convert to MAC from decades of PC, I have yet to 'play around with' text boxes in Pages, i.e. linking them together, etc.

Many thanks.

Peter, that is SO IMPRESSIVE!

Since my previous reply to you I had rather sussed out that something like this would be possible but the labour involved seemed sadly daunting - it is a 500+ page textbook that I am translating and when I have completed the dual-column 'working document' (such that the English translation is finally ready for publication), all these breaks will have to be unpicked so that the disconnected paragraphs can be stitched back together again.

None of this was ever a problem in MS Word and, from what I can see, is also easy and straightforward in OpenOffice. As one other correspondent once said regarding this matter "if the tool doesn't work for you, you don't have to use it!"

I will, however, try your very useful suggestion. Obviously it will work but it will also provide me with a very useful, hands-on learning exercise that I know will help me with several other documents.

Many thanks,

Tim

Thanks again. You have given more more than enough to be getting on with - and far more than anyone else has been able to offer.

Tim