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I am writing a book in Rmarkdown using the tufte package; which uses tufte-latex for pdf output. My current issue is that I have not found a way to have a table extend wider than the normal margin of the tufte-latex output.

Things I have tried:

  • Wrapping in the table* environment (suggested here); but works only for tables that are less than 1 page long
  • Wrapping in the fullwidth environment; but this has no effect on longtable (see here)
  • Using my newgeometry approach, which pushes the table onto a new page, which is not desirable
  • \setlength\LTleft and \setlength\LTright (here); I can set one or the other (e.g. move the table to the right margin), but setting both doesn't alter the width. I think this is because the column sizes are fixed by Pandoc?

Things I have read but don't understand:

  • Redefining the longtable environment here looks promising, but I don't entirely understand the answer

Things I can do:

  • I can use Pandoc filters to wrap latex output in additional commands or environment wrappers. e.g. I have a filter that identifies a wide table and places it in a \landscape layout (although this it does not solve the column-overlap issue).
  • I can change the latex template the Pandoc uses, so I can call additional options/use packages

Key restrictions are that:

  • Tables compile cleanly to both html and latex; i.e. it can take a markdown table as an input, and does not require explicit specification of column width
  • It can handle tables longer than one page

Here is an example table/document, generated by pandoc.

\documentclass[a4paper]{tufte-book}

% ams
\usepackage{amssymb,amsmath}


\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
\usepackage{fixltx2e} % provides \textsubscript
\ifnum 0\ifxetex 1\fi\ifluatex 1\fi=0 % if pdftex
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\else % if luatex or xelatex
  \makeatletter
  @ifpackageloaded{fontspec}{}{\usepackage{fontspec}}
  \makeatother
  \defaultfontfeatures{Ligatures=TeX,Scale=MatchLowercase}
  \makeatletter
  @ifpackageloaded{soul}{
     \renewcommand\allcapsspacing[1]{{\addfontfeature{LetterSpace=15}#1}}
     \renewcommand\smallcapsspacing[1]{{\addfontfeature{LetterSpace=10}#1}}
   }{}
  \makeatother


\fi


% graphix
\usepackage{graphicx}
\setkeys{Gin}{width=\linewidth,totalheight=\textheight,keepaspectratio}


% booktabs
\usepackage{booktabs}


% url
\usepackage{url}


% hyperref
\usepackage{hyperref}


% units.
\usepackage{units}


\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}


% citations
\usepackage{natbib}
\bibliographystyle{plainnat}


% pandoc syntax highlighting


% table with pandoc
\usepackage{longtable,booktabs,array}
\usepackage{calc} % for calculating minipage widths
% Correct order of tables after \paragraph or \subparagraph
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\longtable{\par}{\if@noskipsec\mbox{}\fi\par}{}{}
\makeatother
% Allow footnotes in longtable head/foot
\IfFileExists{footnotehyper.sty}{\usepackage{footnotehyper}}{\usepackage{footnote}}
\makesavenoteenv{longtable}


% multiplecol
\usepackage{multicol}


% strikeout
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}


% morefloats
\usepackage{morefloats}


% tightlist macro required by pandoc >= 1.14
\providecommand{\tightlist}{%
  \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}


% title / author / date
\title{A Minimal Book Example}
\author{Author Name}
\date{2021-12-22}


\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{longtable}


\begin{document}


\maketitle


{
\setcounter{tocdepth}{2}
\tableofcontents
}


\hypertarget{table}{%
\chapter{Table}\label{table}}


\begin{longtable}[]{@{}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.04}}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.20}}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.20}}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.24}}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.18}}
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\columnwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.13}}@{}}
\toprule
Properties & Dobutamine & Isoprenaline & Ephedrine & Metaraminol & Phenylephrine \
\midrule
\endhead
Uses & Stress testing, increasing CO & Severe bradycardia & ↑ SVR without ↓ in HR & ↑ SVR & ↑ SVR \
Dosing & 5-15µg/kg/min & Infusion from 0.5-10µg/min & 3-6mg bolus & Bolus 0.5-2mg & Bolus start at 50-100mcg \
Route & IV & IV & IV & IV & IV/IM/SC \
Presentation & Racemic mixture of 250mg dobutamine in 20ml water & Clear solution at 1mg/ml & Clear, colourless solution in 30mg/ml ampoule & Clear, colourless solution in ampoule at 10mg/ml, typically reconstituted to 0.5mg/ml & Clear, colourless solution at 100mcg/ml \
Absorption & IV & IV & IV or IM & IV & IV \
Metabolism & t1/2 2-5 min. COMT to inactive metabolites. & Hepatic by COMT & Hepatic (not metabolised by MAO and COMT), giving a longer (10-60 minute) duration of action and a t1/2β of 3-6 hours & Some uptake into adrenergic nerve endings & Hepatic by MAO \
Elimination & Urinary excretion of unchanged drug and metabolites & 50% unchanged in urine & Renal of metabolites, t1/2β 2-3 hours & & \
Mechanism of action & β1\textgreater\textgreater β2, D2 & β1\textgreater β2 & ↑ NA release (indirect α1) and direct α and β agonism & Direct and indirect (via ↑ NA release) α1 agonism & Direct α1 \
Respiratory & Bronchodilation & Potent bronchodilation & Bronchodilation & & \
CVS & ↑ HR, CO, contractility, and automaticity. Β2 effects may ↓ SVR and BP, particularly if ↓ preload. & ↑ HR and ↑ CO, modest ↑ inotropy. ↓ SVR due to β2 effects but BP usually unchanged due to ↑ CO. & Direct and indirect (via NA release) ↑ in HR, BP, and CO. Arrhythmogenic. & ↑ SVR/PVR, reflex bradycardia. Indirect ↑ in coronary flow. & ↑ SVR and BP, potential reflex bradycardia. Not arrhythmogenic. \
CNS & Tremor & & ↑ MAC, mydriasis. & & \
MSK & & & & & \
Renal & ↑ RBF and ↑ urinary output with no improvement in renal function & & ↓ RBF & ↓ RBF & ↓ RBF \
Metabolic & & & & & \
GU & & & & ↓ Uterine blood flow & ↓ Uterine blood flow \
GIT & & & & & \
\bottomrule
\end{longtable}


\end{document}
cjdbarlow
  • 13
  • 4

1 Answers1

1

All that is required is to expand the columns of the table to use the \marginparwidth and the \marginparsep.

m

\setlength{\tabcolsep}{6pt} % added to fit in the textwidth<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  
\begin{longtable}[]{@{}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.25}}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.25}}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.25}}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.3}}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.3}}
    >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{(\textwidth - 10\tabcolsep) * \real{0.3}}@{}}
\toprule

The second page using \usepackage{showframe} to display the margins.

k

Simon Dispa
  • 39,141
  • Hi Simon, thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I cannot change the numeric values of \real; they are generated by Pandoc when it compiles.

    Your answer has had me thinking though and I am wondering if I can redefine \real to scale by a fixed value (e.g. 1.6, which would fit the fullwidth of the document), and then un-redefine it after the table.

    I've had a bit of a play but my latex knowledge isn't good enough to have it working or see if its worth pursuing:

    \let\oldreal\real \renewcommand{\real}[2]{1.6 * \oldreal{#1}{#2}}

     – cjdbarlow Dec 22 '21 at 23:11
  • @cjdbarlow That would not work. The first column is to narrow. Why? Try to force Pandoc or R so that all \real have the values you want. – Simon Dispa Dec 23 '21 at 13:02
  • This put me on the right track. I wrote Pandoc filter that broke up tables based on their relative number of columns and rows; and made tables that were less than one page long fullwidth using \table* and landscaped everything bigger than that. – cjdbarlow Dec 29 '21 at 08:52