Hanzi+Pinyin+English multiple line word processing

[yaokong]

Hi everybody! I am searching for a text processor which can handle multiple line text. I simply couldn't find such a function in any text editor. I like arranging Chinese texts in a certain way, as follows:

1st line - Hanzi

2nd line - pinyin

3rd line - English word for each character

4th line - English word for each combination, the actual words that is

5th line - free translation of the sentence.

Its quite complicated with common text editing tools, because if I add a carriage return (Enter) somewhere in the text, or if I change the character size, or the page width or practically ANYTHING, the arrangement completely falls apart, because the program obviously doesn't know that they form a group.

The idea to arrange text like this (with a small modification) I got from mochinamochina.com, an example from the blog:

给你你都不要？

gěi nǐ nǐ dōu bù yào ？

give you you even don't want

I gave it to you and you don't want it?

Anybody got an idea how to realize this in a text editor? I'm on a Mac, but if I have to use Windows for this, I'd be willing to do so, cause I have realized that this way I can learn and read Chinese texts way faster than with other methods.

I'd be grateful for any help! Cheers!

[chrix]

Actually, in linguistics this is called interlinear glossing. Have a look at the "Word for Linguists" site here: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/WordForLinguists/Index.htm

However, in interlinear glossing everything is usually aligned, so if you want to have levels for morphemes and words, you might need to use hyphens to line up the morphemes correctly with the words:

飛機 要 起飛 了

fēi-jī yào qǐ-fēi le

fly-machine will get_up-fly CRS

airplane will take_off CRS

"The airplane is about to take off"

[Daan]

Using a table instead of plain text is probably the easiest way to fix your problem

[phyrex]

I second the table suggestion. Also, check out omni outliner

[pancake]

Check out MacKEY. It's a bit expensive, but does at least come with a 30-day trial.

[yaokong]

Using the keyword "interlinear" I've also found a similar topic at the wordreference forum: “Interlinear” Chinese to boost reading skill.

Thanks for the answers, I've found some interesting software, downloading "Kura" now, an interlinear text editor. I don't yet know if printing will work well, I'll just report back after trying out. Also got OmniOutliner, but I don't yet understand how to enter long text into it.

[yaokong]

I already tried MacKEY, but I really don't see an option to enter 5 lines of interlinear text. It certainly does add Pinyin to existing text, but there's a lot of programs to do that. Have you actually used it for the task I was asking about?

[chrix]

the macro at the Word for Linguists site does its job nicely, I've used it in the past (right now I'm using the true and tried space-it-yourself method )