emacs: Two-Column
25.16 Two-Column Editing
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Two-column mode lets you conveniently edit two side-by-side columns of
text. It uses two side-by-side windows, each showing its own buffer.
There are three ways to enter two-column mode:
‘<F2> 2’ or ‘C-x 6 2’
Enter two-column mode with the current buffer on the left, and on
the right, a buffer whose name is based on the current buffer’s
name (‘2C-two-columns’). If the right-hand buffer doesn’t already
exist, it starts out empty; the current buffer’s contents are not
changed.
This command is appropriate when the current buffer is empty or
contains just one column and you want to add another column.
‘<F2> s’ or ‘C-x 6 s’
Split the current buffer, which contains two-column text, into two
buffers, and display them side by side (‘2C-split’). The current
buffer becomes the left-hand buffer, but the text in the right-hand
column is moved into the right-hand buffer. The current column
specifies the split point. Splitting starts with the current line
and continues to the end of the buffer.
This command is appropriate when you have a buffer that already
contains two-column text, and you wish to separate the columns
temporarily.
‘<F2> b BUFFER <RET>’
‘C-x 6 b BUFFER <RET>’
Enter two-column mode using the current buffer as the left-hand
buffer, and using buffer BUFFER as the right-hand buffer
(‘2C-associate-buffer’).
‘<F2> s’ or ‘C-x 6 s’ looks for a column separator, which is a string
that appears on each line between the two columns. You can specify the
width of the separator with a numeric argument to ‘<F2> s’; that many
characters, before point, constitute the separator string. By default,
the width is 1, so the column separator is the character before point.
When a line has the separator at the proper place, ‘<F2> s’ puts the
text after the separator into the right-hand buffer, and deletes the
separator. Lines that don’t have the column separator at the proper
place remain unsplit; they stay in the left-hand buffer, and the
right-hand buffer gets an empty line to correspond. (This is the way to
write a line that spans both columns while in two-column mode: write it
in the left-hand buffer, and put an empty line in the right-hand
buffer.)
The command ‘C-x 6 <RET>’ or ‘<F2> <RET>’ (‘2C-newline’) inserts a
newline in each of the two buffers at corresponding positions. This is
the easiest way to add a new line to the two-column text while editing
it in split buffers.
When you have edited both buffers as you wish, merge them with ‘<F2>
1’ or ‘C-x 6 1’ (‘2C-merge’). This copies the text from the right-hand
buffer as a second column in the other buffer. To go back to two-column
editing, use ‘<F2> s’.
Use ‘<F2> d’ or ‘C-x 6 d’ to dissociate the two buffers, leaving each
as it stands (‘2C-dissociate’). If the other buffer, the one not
current when you type ‘<F2> d’, is empty, ‘<F2> d’ kills it.
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