Split sentences in table

Question

I have a table with two columns: a word and its description, which is a sentences. Now, when I create a pdf, the sentences run out of the page boundary. Is it possible to automatically split the sentences in Latex or do linebreaks need to be used?

Answer 1

Use a p{<length>} column in the tabular format (p{<length>} behaves like \parbox[t]{width} and text will wrap); if you load the array package you can also use m{<length>} which is similar but now every entry will be centered in proportion to the rest of the line. A little example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{lipsum}% just to generate some text

\begin{document}

\noindent\begin{tabular}{lp{8cm}}
Left aligned column & \lipsum[1]
\end{tabular}

\noindent\begin{tabular}{lm{8cm}}
Left aligned column & \lipsum[1]
\end{tabular}

\end{document}