Perhaps you could use list-tables (https://github.com/pandoc-ext/list-table)?

I've attached your markdown with the first section updated to use a list-table, and with the other sections removed. The changes are rather minimal, e.g., here are the start of the fenced div and the first row (you can see that I converted your {.OldEnglish} (etc.) to []{.OldEnglish}, i.e., to an empty span with class OldEnglish, which is carried over to the table cell).

::: {.list-table header-rows=0}

- - []{.OldEnglish} AFTER an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.

  - []{.ModernEnglish} After clearly experiencing that the current federal government isn't working well, you are asked to think about a new Constitution for the United States of America.

I also attach the HTML generated via this command:

% pandoc -L list-table.lua Paper\ 1.1\ list-table.md > Paper\ 1.1\ list-table.html

Here's the HTML for the first row.

<tr class="odd">
<td class="OldEnglish"><p> AFTER an unequivocal experience of the
inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon
to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of
America.</p></td>
<td class="ModernEnglish"><p> After clearly experiencing that the
current federal government isn’t working well, you are asked to think
about a new Constitution for the United States of America.</p></td>
</tr>

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

William

On Sun, 7 May 2023 at 06:58, S. Manning <scriptor-aFO/2INALiozYggVrLCuDg@public.gmane.org> wrote:

I would like to say that this is a classic problem which most rich text
file formats (eg. DOCX or ODT) are not well set up to handle because its
typical in a religious or academic context but not a business or
government context.  Parallel texts in several languages are a very
common and important use case in layout but one which most digital tools
neglect because they were designed for business and bureaucratic
writing.

I'm not aware of a way to handle this in any flavour of Markdown, in
HTML I usually use tables but Markdown tables are awkward and not
standardized.

Sean

On 2023-05-06 13:43, Mark Pinsley wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am brand new to Pandoc. I have been looking at writting some content
> that I wanted to present in multiple ways. it seems like Pandoc can
> help.
>
> A few things that I haven't been able to figure out.
>
> 1. I have attached a document that I created it is the Federalist
> Paper #1. I have been using this document to try different things
> including creating references etc. What I haven't been able to figure
> out is the best method of first defining different paragraphs and then
> being able to do something specific with them
>
> In this case. I have created the "Old English" version (which i
> probably should have just called Original) and the "Modern English"
> version.
>
> So as I am typing I write in {.ModernEnglish} and {.OldEnglish}
>
> If I want to produce these so that they are side by side. Meaning the
> old English in on the Left and the ModernEnglish  is on the right. How
> can I do that, or should I be coming out this in a completely
> different way? As I am writing I want to be able to quickly identify
> one from an other.
>
> If I want the OldEnlgih to appear and then the ModernEngilsh as a
> CodeBlodk, do I just find/replace all ModernEnglish and replace with
> ">"  ??
>
> 2. If I want to create a look and feel. I want to output this as HTML,
> PDF and PPT.
>
> On each one I want a particular look/feel   How/where do I develop
> that look and feel (I am not a programmer so it would be easier if I
> could see what the output would look like - meaning moving colors
> around etc)
>
> All help is appreciated. Thanks
> Mark
>
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