Trouble creating basic table

Question

I would like to create a table, which look like this:

enter image description here

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows,positioning,calc,threeparttable} 
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multirow,tabularx,booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline 
\bf{Text A:} & \bf{Text B:} \\ 
\hline 
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat." & "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat." \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular} 
\end{document}

Can someone help me?

It is mandatory to use two tables? To set two texts parallel the package \parallel can be used — , Apr 21 '14 at 16:56

Steven B. Segletes · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-21T17:46:41.860

Depending on what you are really trying to achieve, here are several possibilities:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf}
%\usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows,positioning,calc,threeparttable} 
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multirow,tabularx,booktabs}
\parskip 1em
\begin{document}
\noindent\hrulefill

Tiny to get specified text layout

{\centering\tiny\begin{tabular}{cc}
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\end{tabular}\par}

Normalsize

{\centering\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline 
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\hline 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular}\par}

Without lines:

{\centering\begin{tabular}{cc}
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\end{tabular}\par}
\end{document}

enter image description here

EDIT to show how to make the top box locally exceed the margin, per OP's request. I place it in a \makebox[\textwidth]{...} to achieve this, remembering to \noindent the \makebox. The margin extent is shown with the \hrulefill at the top of the page.

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,oneside]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf}
%\usetikzlibrary{shapes,arrows,positioning,calc,threeparttable} 
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{multirow,tabularx,booktabs}
\parskip 1em
\begin{document}
\noindent\hrulefill

Footnotesize with margins exceeded to get specified text layout

\noindent\makebox[\textwidth]{\footnotesize\begin{tabular}{cc}
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\parbox[t]{.6\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.6\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\end{tabular}}

Normalsize

{\centering\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline 
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\hline 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular}\par}

Without lines:

{\centering\begin{tabular}{cc}
\textbf{Text A:} & \textbf{Text B:} \\ 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering ``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''} & 
\parbox[t]{.45\textwidth}{\centering``Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, 
consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam 
nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat 
volutpat.''}  \\ 
\end{tabular}\par}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Thank you very much. If I would like to make the boxes wider, how do I do that? — A. F., Apr 21 '14 at 17:12
@A.F. Well for the basic article class, they are about as wide as they can go, without exceeding the margins (that line I drew at the top of the page is the margin extent). If you are willing to change the document margins, I will post a revised answer. — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 21 '14 at 17:14
It is not possible to overrule the margins, I mean, if I change "0.45\textwidth" my box's moved in wrong direction. — A. F., Apr 21 '14 at 17:16
@A.F. I have revised my answer to show how to use the geometry package to change the margins symmetrically. Is that sufficient for your needs? Or were you hoping to locally overrule the margins just for this table, but not the whole document. — Steven B. Segletes, Apr 21 '14 at 17:20
I know how to change margins. I was hoping to overrule the margins, so it won't be depending whether the margins are 2, 3 og 4. — A. F., Apr 21 '14 at 17:22

Trouble creating basic table

1 Answers1