Reproducing a tabular form

Question

I am trying to reproduce the following tabular form layout:

Fig. 1: Desired output (found on the internet).

First question:

I can merge multiple cells into a single one both horizontally and vertically (using \multicolumn and \multirow), but I do not know how to split a single cell into multiple ones. How can I do that?

Minimal working example:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}

\scriptsize
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{0.2em}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{!{\vrule width 1pt}p{4cm} | X !{\vrule width 1pt}}
\noalign{\hrule height 1pt}
Question one & Question two\\[0.5cm] \hline
Question three & Question four\\[1cm] \noalign{\hrule height 1pt}
Question five & Question six\\[0.5cm] \hline
\multicolumn{2}{!{\vrule width 1pt} l !{\vrule width 1pt}}{Question seven}\\[1cm]
\noalign{\hrule height 1pt}
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

I am able to seamlessly connect two tables using \vskip-0.7mm, but it would have to be adjusted after many various changes, e.g. font size, so I prefer a single table solution.

Edit (31 July 2011):

Fig. 2: Another tabular or tabularx inside a cell does not give a satisfying result.

Fig. 3: Problem with vertical alignment of the X column of tabularx.

The relevant part of the code:

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|p{4cm}|X|}
\hline
{\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{} l | X @{}}
Some text & Other text\\[1cm]
\end{tabularx}} & Something else\\
\hline
\end{tabularx}

Answer 1

1. Splitting cells: you can nest tabular environments. Just use a tabular like environment in a cell. If you nest tabularx environments, it can be helpful to enclose an inner tabularx environment by braces.

2. Rotating content: you could use \rotatebox of the graphicx package, see Changing text direction in LaTeX table capabilities.

Answer 2

Why do you like to reproduce the tabular form layout?

I had a similar problem in the past, my solution was quite easy: Scan the form into a pdf and use pdfpages to load it as background image (or if available: take the pdf of an empty form).

Then I defined some macros to fill text at the correct positions into the form in page background. If you like, I can provide my style (I hope I find it ;-) )

Answer 3

The best solution for dividing columns as in this case that I have found is the following:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\begin{document}

\rowcolors{1}{black!10}{white}

\scriptsize
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{0em}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|p{4cm}|X|} \hline
Question one & Question two\\[0.5cm] \hline
Question three & Question four\\[1cm] \hline
Question five & Question six\\[0.5cm] \hline
{\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{} l | X @{}}
Some text & Other text\\[1cm]
\end{tabularx}} & \raisebox{0.5cm}{Something else}\\
\hline
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

The height of the whole row is determined by the height of the row of the inner table and since the text in the same row of the outer table is vertically centered, it is then raised by a half of the inner row height, in this case [1cm] and \raisebox{0.5cm}{...}.

Joining tables with \vskip-(number)(em/ex) is possibly even better, but my original requirement does not allow this.

If you are going to vote for this answer, you should consider voting for Stefan's as well, as the majority of the unwanted space was eliminated by him. This is only to provide the definite answer for the possible future use by other persons.