Well, I'm really starting to hate LaTeX sometimes - mostly because you can't really learn one thing, and have it applied everywhere else you wanted :/
For instance, I asked the question Changing minipage vertical alignment in mid-line?, which got an answer that works in that context - but which I simply cannot apply in this context now, even if I have the same problem.
Please consider the following MWE:
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{pdftex, colorlinks=true, linkcolor=black}
\usepackage{tocloft}
% like definition for \phantomsection, but for part
% "Re: documentation for \phantomsection"
% http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.text.tex/2006-01/msg01612.html
\makeatletter
\def\phantompart{%
\stepcounter{part}%
\xdef\@currentHref{part.\thepart}%
\Hy@raisedlink{\hyper@anchorstart{\@currentHref}\hyper@anchorend}%
}
\makeatother
% tocloft custom TOC entry format:
\renewcommand{\cftpartpresnum}{ \fbox{ Entry } }
\renewcommand{\cftpartfont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftpartleader}{\bfseries\cftdotfill{\cftdotsep}}
\fboxsep=0pt % for framebox
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\phantompart %
\addtocontents{toc}{%
\protect\contentsline{part}{%
\thepart\hspace{1em}\ignorespaces %
\fbox{ %
A Short Entry %
} %
} %
{ \fbox{ \thepage } }
{ \fbox{ part.\thepart } }% fbox doesn't show!
} %
\phantompart %
\addtocontents{toc}{%
\protect\contentsline{part}{%
\thepart\hspace{1em}\ignorespaces %
\fbox{ %
\protect\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth} %
\textbf{A longer entry here...} \\ %
Maybe something more written in this entry here, %
just to show as an illustration ... %
\protect\end{minipage} %
} %
} %
{ \fbox{ \thepage } }
{ \fbox{ part.\thepart } }% fbox doesn't show!
} %
\phantompart %
\addtocontents{toc}{% % tocloft: this adds to toc, but NOT bookmark!:
\protect\contentsline{part}{%
\thepart\hspace{1em}\ignorespaces %
\fbox{ %
\protect\begin{minipage}{0.5\textwidth} %
\textbf{Another longer entry here...} \\ %
Still, some more content entered here; %
just to show as an illustration ... %
\protect\end{minipage} %
} %
} %
{ \fbox{ \thepage } }
{ \fbox{ part.\thepart } }% fbox doesn't show!
} %
\vspace{0.2\textheight}
Some extra text...
\end{document}
The output of this example is as such:
Apparently, the entries in the table of contents are typeset as "one line", the minipages being treated as characters - and all "characters" being centrally vertically aligned.
What I want is the same as in the initial question: I want the "Entry" and the title (minipage) top-aligned - and the title (minipage) and the page number bottom aligned.
I guess this means introducing a "soft" line break of sorts - as an instruction only for change of vertical alignment: that subsequent words should be aligned to the bottom of the previous word (but without actually creating the extra baseline skip [and starting again to position the words from the left margin] as with a real, "hard" line break).
Composed in an image editor, the desired output would look like this:
... but I simply cannot see what changes can I make to the code to implement this. If we go as per the initial question - where would I insert the tabular environments, to implement the "soft" line break?
If there is a package that addresses this, I'd love to hear about it; but otherwise I'd be more interested in hearing a "core" method to solve this.
titletocpackage (bundled withtitlesecand sharing the manual): on page 14 there's precisely the example you want. – egreg Jun 09 '12 at 10:49\texttt, not as an image; look up "If you have seen tocs, the latter should be familiar to you...") ... However, now I'd have to change all my templates etc:(- so, I'd still be interested in hearing a Latex solution to the posting as stated (withtocloft); hopefully I learn more about vertical alignment of items on lines ... Cheers! – sdaau Jun 09 '12 at 10:56titletocnot trivial at all; I have been trying to make something like that for hours now, and no dice; posted on Understanding titletoc example (and vertical alignment on line). Cheers! – sdaau Jun 09 '12 at 13:31\titletoc, posted in this answer; however, since this question is about\tocloft, I hope it's OK to also keep it open, until an answer arrives for it... – sdaau Jun 10 '12 at 02:17[t]to your minipages, everything gets alined to the first line. I personally prefer that to having the page numbers aligned to the last line ... of course this is not the solution to your problem. – Sebastian Nov 19 '13 at 10:02