[Tex/LaTex] Aligning vertically centered and horizontally left text of cells in table

alignhorizontal alignmenttablesvertical alignment

My minimum working example :

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[francais]{babel}
%\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array,multirow,makecell}
\setcellgapes{1pt}
\makegapedcells
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash }b{#1}}
\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash }b{#1}}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash }b{#1}}


\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{m{.18\textwidth} m{.18\textwidth} m{.18\textwidth} m{.18\textwidth} m{.18\textwidth}} 
\hline \rowcolor{lightgray} Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 1 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 2 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 3 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 4 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 5  \\
\hline Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 1 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 2 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 3 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 4 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 5 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}


\end{document}

I am trying to align my table

Centered vertically (this point seems ok)
Left horizontally

However, given my above code the text is not aligned on left horizontally, but justified, which gives some horrible display with tons of word breaks. I simply want to force it aligned to left.

Issue

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best Answer

You defined a raggedright column type but didn't use it?

enter image description here

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[francais]{babel}
%\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array,multirow,makecell}
\setcellgapes{1pt}
\makegapedcells
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash }m{#1}}
\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash }m{#1}}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash }m{#1}}


\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{L{.18\textwidth} L{.18\textwidth} L{.18\textwidth} L{.18\textwidth} L{.18\textwidth}} 
\hline \rowcolor{lightgray} Lipsum Lipsum 1 & x x x x x x x xLipsum Lipsum Lipsum 2 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum 3 & y y y y y y y y y  x x x x x x xLipsum Lipsum Lipsum 4 & Lipsum 5  \\
\hline Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 1 & Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 2 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 3 & Lipsum Lipsum Lipsum UNDER 4 & Lipsum Lipsum g g g g gg g g Lipsum UNDER 5 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}


\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Centering contents of table cells horizontally and vertically

Use \multirow with the appropriate value in the first argument:

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{scrreprt}
\usepackage{classicthesis-ldpkg}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{rotating}

\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{M}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}m{#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{sidewaystable}
  \centering
  \renewcommand\multirowsetup{\centering}
  \begin{tabular}{|M{20mm}|P{18mm}|P{20mm}|P{18mm}|P{20mm}|P{20mm}|M{15mm}|M{20mm}|M{15mm}|M{20mm}|} \hline
    \multirow{3}{20mm}{Head Model} & \multirow{3}{20mm}{\# SG computed} 
      & \multirow{3}{20mm}{\# Computed directly} & \multirow{3}{20mm}{\# SG Corrected} 
      & \multirow{3}{20mm}{\# SG Approximated} & \multirow{3}{20mm}{SMAS triangle count} 
      & \multicolumn{2}{P{35mm}|}{Machine~1} 
      & \multicolumn{2}{P{35mm}|}{Machine~2} \\ \cline{7-10}
    & & & & & & Runtime & \% spent calc geodesics  & Runtime & \% spent calc geodesics \\ \hline
    African & 1102 & 994 & 102 & 56 & -- & 499~sec. (8.3~min.) & 77\% & -- & -- \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
\end{sidewaystable}        

\end{document}

Avoiding vertical rules in a table is a good practice; in this regard, the booktabs package would be of interest.

[Tex/LaTex] How to vertically and horizontally centre text and images in (different) table cells

The problem is in understanding precisely how tabular works.

Each cell has a reference point of reference and all the reference points are eventually put on the same horizontal line. For l, c, and r cells the reference point is on the baseline; for a p cell the reference point is on the first line's baseline; for m cells the reference point is midway from the top and the bottom of the text; for b cells it's on the last line's baseline.

Thus a tabular specification such as

{l m{3cm} p{3cm}}

will not place the middle cells of a row mid aligned with respect to the last cell, but rather its content will stick above the last column by (slightly less than) half its vertical size.

The kind of alignment you're trying to get can't be obtained without measuring the cells' contents, as Stefan Kottwitz's answer about \tabbox shows: that 3.7\baselineskip was good for that example, not in general.

Here's a way out, in your specific case (note the use of \adjustbox for the picture):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs,adjustbox}

\newcommand{\finalcells}[2]{%
  \begingroup\sbox0{\begin{minipage}{3cm}\raggedright#1\end{minipage}}%
  \sbox2{\begin{minipage}{3cm}\raggedright#2\end{minipage}}%
  \xdef\finalheight{\the\dimexpr\ht0+\dp0+\smallskipamount\relax}%
  \xdef\finalheightB{\the\dimexpr\ht2+\dp2+\smallskipamount\relax}%
  \ifdim\finalheightB>\finalheight
    \global\let\finalheight\finalheightB
  \fi\endgroup
  \begin{minipage}[t][\finalheight][t]{3cm}\raggedright#1\end{minipage}&
  \begin{minipage}[t][\finalheight][t]{3cm}\raggedright#2\end{minipage}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{c m{2cm} m{3cm}  m{3cm} m{3cm}} 
\toprule 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 1} & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 2} & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 3} & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 4} & 
\multicolumn{1}{c}{Header 5} \\ 
\midrule
Short Text &    
Slightly Longer Text & 
\adjustbox{valign=c}{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
  % Draw beam and end lines
  \draw (-1.5,-0.75) rectangle (1.5,0.75) ;
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}
& 
\finalcells{Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it.}
  {Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it. 
   Some text that extends onto more than one line as there's plenty of it.} \\
\bottomrule 
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Centering contents of table cells horizontally and vertically

[Tex/LaTex] How to vertically and horizontally centre text and images in (different) table cells

Related Question