Making one column which is too wide for a page in two pages

Question

I am writing a book using latex, with pages of tables to make the horizontal and vertical alignment of the text and equations strict and precise. However there is a column (on every page) which is too wide for a page, so I plan to split this column into two pages, so that when we put the two pages together, they just show up as one page (margin is not a problem).

The problem is: How can I make one column in a table span two pages?

The layout of the book is set in this way to acquire both the advantage of small book dimensions (portable) yet having large pages. So I split every "large" page into two side-by-side pages as the layout. The background is described so that the situation can be well understood. Other forms of solutions are welcomed (e.g. not using tables but preserving the features of the layout, or even better), but sadly rotating the tables or resizing the pages are not practical here. Thanks very much!

What would be helpful is if you could post a sample table that you've created containing some representative content. That way we can see what the layout looks like, and get a better feel for what you're after. Do this in the form of a minimal working example (MWE). — Werner, Aug 17 '13 at 04:02
Related: How to include a picture over two pages, left part on left side, right on right (for books)? — Werner, Aug 17 '13 at 05:14

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '13 at 05:14

Here is a proof-of-concept that "spreads" a column in tabular across pages. In the image below, the center indicates a break across the page boundaries:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}

% Margins set to 0pt just for this example
\usepackage[margin=0pt]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry

\usepackage{adjustbox,lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/{adjustbox,lipsum}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{|p{\dimexpr\linewidth-200pt-3\tabcolsep}|p{200pt}@{}}
  \lipsum[2] & \adjustbox{trim=0pt 0pt 200pt 0pt,clip}{% Trim & clip right of column
    \tabular[t]{@{}p{400pt}@{}}\lipsum[1-2]\endtabular}
\end{tabular}

\clearpage

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{}p{200pt}|p{\dimexpr\linewidth-200pt-3\tabcolsep}|}
  \adjustbox{trim=200pt 0pt 0pt 0pt,clip}{% Trim & clip left of column
    \tabular[t]{@{}p{400pt}@{}}\lipsum[1-2]\endtabular} & \lipsum[2]
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

The column that requires spreading is set twice, once on the left page, and another on the right page. At each instance, the block of text to spread is set with a trim (provided by adjustbox which is then clipped).

The key is to know the width of the column you wish to "spread" across pages. That way you can trim the block at the appropriate length with certainty.

Making one column which is too wide for a page in two pages

1 Answers1