\ProvidesPackage{dualcolumnnotebook}

% This is finally the layout that allows parallel columns of text. It is unbelievable that I had to resort to a typesetting system to get this.

%\settypeblocksize{24cm}{17cm}{*}
%\setlrmarginsandblock{2cm}{1.5cm}{*}
%\setulmarginsandblock{2cm}{*}{1}
%\checkandfixthelayout

%\setheadfoot{\onelineskip}{2\onelineskip}
%\setheaderspaces{*}{2\onelineskip}{*}
%\setsidebars{\marginparsep}{\marginparwidth}{4pt}{0pt}{\scriptsize\normalfont}{\textheight}
%\parskip=0pt

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{epstopdf}
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.tif}{png}{.png}{`convert #1 `dirname #1`/`basename #1 .tif`.png}
\usepackage{paracol} % This approach achieves the desired notebook layout with much less work.
\usepackage{microtype} % Clears some underfull and overfull box problems.
\usepackage{hyperref}

%\usepackage{xltxtra} % Text superscripts and subscripts if not already available.
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguages{french,german,greek,latin}
\setkeys{greek}{variant=poly}

\usepackage{fontspec,xltxtra,xunicode} % Necessary for the Greek when using XeLaTex.
\defaultfontfeatures{Mapping=tex-text}
\setromanfont{Times New Roman} % Or Gentium Book Basic
\setsansfont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Gill Sans} % Or Courier
\setmonofont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Andale Mono}

\makeatletter % Reformat the section header.
\renewcommand\section{\@startsection
  {section}{1}{0mm}
  {-\baselineskip}
  {0.5\baselineskip}
  {\normalfont\normalsize\itshape}}
\makeatother

\makeatletter % Reformat the chapter header.
\renewcommand\chapter{\@startsection
  {chapter}{0}{0mm}
  {-\baselineskip}
  {0.5\baselineskip}
  {\large\bfseries}}
\makeatother

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{multicol}
