# Simple tabular too wide

I'm trying to write quite a simple document here but I'm having a frustrating problem with my tabular. Here's my code:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
%\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{scrartcl}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item[a)]\mbox{}\\%using this to go to the next line
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
& \textbf{A1 Configuration Série} & \textbf{A2 Configuration Parallèle} \\ \hline
$$\Delta$$V de la source : & 210V & 120V \\ \hline
I fourni par la source : & 10A & 20A \\ \hline
P dissipé par dans le radiateur : & 2000W & 2000W \\ \hline
Temps de fonctionnement : & 100s & 100s \\ \hline
Énergie livrée au radiateur : & 200 kJ & 200kJ \\ \hline
Énergie fournie par la source: & 210kJ & 240kJ \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
Text here should be indented as if there was no table.
\end{itemize}

\end{document}


The problem is that it gives mme this error :

Overfull \hbox (92.27675pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 5--16


What I understand from this error is that my tabular is too wide. I've tried to resize the comlums with p{2.5cm} but it did raise me another error. I think the problem is caused by the indentation of the item I use. If I could set the table out of the indent, but keep the rest inside of it, that would be great.

I've heard talking about \makebox but it doesn't seem to be supported in my environment, I use Kile on linux, or if it requires a special package.

UPDATE

I got a second question here, and I just ask for explanation, because I suppose this is something fairly easy to fix. If I use this table, after that paragraph I get the same overfull warning :

\item[c)]
En regardant le tableau d'efficacité ci-dessous, on observe que le \%
d'efficacité diminue lorsque l'on passe d'une configuration en série
vers une configuration en parallèle.

\begin{table}[h]
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
& \textbf{A1} & \textbf{A2} & \textbf{B1} & \textbf{B2} \\ \hline
\textbf{\% d' efficacité :} & 95.24\% & 83.33\% & 95.24\% & 83.33\% \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{itemize}


Gives me this warning :

Overfull \hbox (10.11162pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 138--141


I don't think the problem is the table here, because if I get rid of it, there's still a warning. Why can't TeX render a simple paragraph like this without considering it is tool large? I'm quite new to LaTeX and I don't get this. The render is ok in my PDF.

-
I am using MiKTex on Windows and your code did not make any error. Did you use something similar before with your editor? Maybe it is a problem of the compilation/editor. – MasterPJ Nov 12 '12 at 22:44
I've added a second part to my question. – David Nov 13 '12 at 3:43

The excessive width of the table is due to the headers of columns 2 and 3; you can divide it in three rows (unfortunately "Configuration" is too long a word):

  \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
& \textbf{A1} & \textbf{A2} \\
& \textbf{Configuration} & \textbf{Configuration} \\
& \textbf{Série} & \textbf{Parallèle} \\ \hline
$$\Delta$$V de la source : & 210V & 120V \\ \hline
I fourni par la source : & 10A & 20A \\ \hline
P dissipé par dans le radiateur : & 2000W & 2000W \\ \hline
Temps de fonctionnement : & 100s & 100s \\ \hline
Énergie livrée au radiateur : & 200 kJ & 200kJ \\ \hline
Énergie fournie par la source : & 210kJ & 240kJ \\ \hline
\end{tabular}


-
I'll give it a try as soon as I get home! Thanks dude. Another question, I have to put this table as it comes from a homework gave by my teacher. The exact same table is in my teacher's version of the homework, but the column isn't broken on multiple lines, is it possible that he used a smaller font? – David Nov 12 '12 at 23:42
@David Using a smaller font is not helping: the phrases in the headers are simply too long. At 10pt size the phrase "A1 Configuration Série" is 116pt wide, while at 5pt size it becomes 77pt; the second phrase is 135pt reducing to 89pt. So you can gain 85pt but the result will be terrible (and easily recognizable). – egreg Nov 12 '12 at 23:50
I wonder how he could pull this one off then :P – David Nov 13 '12 at 1:08

Use

\hspace*{-50pt}\begin{tabular}......\end{tabular}\hspace{-50pt}


and your table will be 100pt narrower as far as TeX is concerned.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
%\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{scrartcl}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item[a)]\mbox{}\\%using this to go to the next line
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
& \textbf{A1 Configuration Série} & \textbf{A2 Configuration Parallèle} \\ \hline
$$\Delta$$V de la source : & 210V & 120V \\ \hline
I fourni par la source : & 10A & 20A \\ \hline
P dissipé par dans le radiateur : & 2000W & 2000W \\ \hline
Temps de fonctionnement : & 100s & 100s \\ \hline
Énergie livrée au radiateur : & 200 kJ & 200kJ \\ \hline
Énergie fournie par la source: & 210kJ & 240kJ \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
Text here should be indented as if there was no table.
\end{itemize}

\end{document}


-
would the person downvoting that say why they downvoted it?, It is valid code that most likely addresses the problem at hand. The question asked to make it fit without making the table smaller. – David Carlisle Nov 12 '12 at 23:09