Thanks Rik,

that is very helpful. Now I am having some difficulties with coordinating the \inmargins with the marginrules.


In the example below, I notice the oddity that \startmarginrule[2] is closer to the text than \startmarginrule[1]
or \startmarginrule[3], which are at equal distance. I can live with that.

There are only three things I’d like to improve:

i) I’d like to put my default  \inmargin arguments into the setup, but I can’t figure out whether to use \setupinmargin
or \setupinmargindata, and where to put the arguments.

ii) Ideally I’d like to use a description to be able to write \startgreenline … \stopgreenline, and I have tried this with
\setupdescription, but failed.

iii) Dream: Instead of solid margin rules I would love to have other options, like squiggly lines, dashed, dotted. 


Thanks!

Matthias



\setupmarginrule[rulethickness=.1pt] % works


\setupmargindata[][align=middle,width=2cm] %??? 

\definedescription[greenline] % ???
[before={\setupmarginrule[rulecolor=green]
\indenting[no]
\startmarginrule[2]},
after={\stopmarginrule}
]

\starttext

\inmargin[method=first][frame=on,corner=round] {Read\\this\\first}
\setupmarginrule[rulecolor=red]
\indenting[no]
\startmarginrule[1]
\input{knuth}
\stopmarginrule

\inmargin[method=first][frame=on,corner=round,align=middle,width=2cm,offset=3pt] {Read\\this\\second}
\setupmarginrule[rulecolor=green]
\indenting[no]
\startmarginrule[2]
\input{tufte}
\stopmarginrule

\inmargin[][frame=on,corner=round,align=middle,width=2cm] {Read\\this\\third}
\setupmarginrule[rulecolor=blue]
\indenting[no]
\startmarginrule[3]
\input{knuth}
\stopmarginrule


\inmargin[][frame=on,corner=round,align=middle,width=2cm] {Read\\this\\fourth}
\setupmarginrule[rulecolor=black]
\indenting[no]
\startmarginrule[4]
\input{knuth}
\stopmarginrule

\startgreenline
\input{tufte}
\stopgreenline

\stoptext


On May 17, 2014, at 8:21 PM, Rik Kabel <context@rik.users.panix.com> wrote:

On 2014-05-17 20:12, Matthias Weber wrote:
Dear All,

I would like to use the margin for two different purposes: For brief notes, using
\inmargin, and to mark entire paragraphs sections of the text with vertical lines.

So, I’d like to be able to something like this

\starttext

\startsquigglyline
\inmargin{read \\ this \\ first}
\input{knuth}
\stopsquigglyline

\startthinline
\inmargin{read \\ this \\ next}
\input{tufte}
\stopthinline

\stoptext


I know I could use frames to accomplish the vertical features within in the text area, but I’d prefer to use the margin so that framing paragraphs doesn’t
indent the paragraphs compared to the unframed portions.
But I also want to have the \inmargin notes to be lined up properly. So it looks like I would need to divide the margin into two horizontally
separate regions. On left pages, the left region would be used for the \inmargin notes, and the (very thin) right region would be used for the
vertical features (squigglyline and thinline). For right pages the other way around. Of course I’d also like the vertical features to extend across pages, if needed.
Like so:


 Left Page Right Page

read (  Knuth Tufte | read
this ) Knuth Tufte | this
first ( Knuth Tufte | next
) Knuth Tufte |
( Knuth Tufte |

Is there a mechanism in place for that?
Thanks for any hints!

Matthias

You want margin rules. The wiki has a place-holder entry for \setupmarginrules, but the ConTeXt reference manual has a couple of pages that should provide a good start.

-- 
Rik
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