Adrian Clark wrote:

Alexis Lee writes:

...

I have a Latex table (begin{tabular}), and I want it to break one of the columns if it needs to.

So rather than:

<------------ size of page ------------> /---------------------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long long long field | field | | field | field | long field | field | \---------------------------------------------------/

I get: /--------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long | field | | | | long long | | | | | field | | | field | field | long field | field | \--------------------------------------/

Use something like \begin{tabular}{|l|l|p{3in}|l|}

to set the third column as a 3-inch-wide paragraph. As Leslie Lamport used to say, "it's documented in the [his] LaTeX book", p 205.

Woops. Forgot to mention I'd already tried something like this. The problem is that all the fields are of variable width, and I want as much space as is available to be used before it wraps the line. I did try p{\fill}, but it gave me LOTS of errors and helped me not at all. When I tried p{1in plus10in minus0in} it printed 'plus ... 0in' as part of the text for the next column... which it wrapped. The book I'm using is 'A guide to Latex 2e', Kopka and Daly. p 18. Thanks for answering what obviously sounded like an RTFM; tell me if I should just bite the bullet. Alexis -- Failure- When your best just isn't good enough. "Democracy is an appalling system of government, but it is seven times better than any other" - Churchill "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok

One extra thing... I just tried \p{15mm} and it didn't do a thing. Alexis -- Failure- When your best just isn't good enough. "Democracy is an appalling system of government, but it is seven times better than any other" - Churchill "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok