How to prevent tables from being wider than the text width in ConTeXt?

Question

I have some tables like this:

\starttabulate[|l|l|]
    \HL
    \NC Title 1 \NC Title 2 \NC\NR
    \HL
    \NC This is a sentence. \NC This is another sentence. \NC\NR
    \HL
\stoptabulate

Sometimes, the sentences are too long, so then the table width becomes very wide.

• How can I make certain that the width of the table never exceeds the width of the available text width?

Answer 1

The column types of ConTeXt and LaTeX are equal. The column type l doesn't allow any breaks and so the table runs out to the margin. To allow line breaks you can use the column type p, i.e.

\starttabulate[|p|p|]

By default, a certain width is used for p columns, but the column width can be specified by writing a length in parenthesis after p, e.g. p(4cm). See http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Command/starttabulate for more information about column types.