Does emacs support multi-column editing?

Question

Emacs, like most text editors, supports top-down editing:

word1 word2 word3 

but, unlike Microsoft Word, I cannot figure out how to edit in two columns:

 col1 col2 word1 word2 word3 word4 Note: Editing in the first column does not change the spacing of the second. 

Is it possible?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this fits your requirements, but you can take a look at “Editing Two Columns”.

Answer 2

Org mode. Just create a new file, call Mx org-mode , and then paste it into:

 * Look! A table! | col1 | col2. | | word1 | word2 | | word3 | | | word4 | | 

Add as many columns as you want, and this should behave as you expect. See the org-mode documentation for key bindings.
http://orgmode.org/manual/Tables.html

Answer 3

You may be looking for a rewrite mode. You must switch it with the insert key.