# bullet in table not aligned

I created the following table. however, the bullets are not aligned. What can I do to get them aligned?

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{booktabs}% http://ctan.org/pkg/booktabs
\newcommand{\tabitem}{~~\llap{\textbullet}~~}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Symbolic Math Toolbox}
\begin{itemize}
\item Don't do nasty calculations by hand!
\item Symbolics vs. Numerics
\end{itemize}
\begin{tabular}{| p{1.3cm} | p{4cm} | p{4cm} |} \hline    & \textcolor{green}{Advantages} & \textcolor{red}{Disadvantages} \\ \hline
Symbolic & \tabitem Analytical solutions & \tabitem Sometimes can't be solved \\
& \tabitem Lets you intuit things about solution form & \tabitem Can be overly complicated \\ \hline
Numeric & \tabitem Always get a solution & \tabitem Hard to extract a deep understanding \\
&\tabitem Can make solutions accurate & \tabitem Num. methods sometimes fail \\
& \tabitem Easy to code & \tabitem Can take a while to compute \\  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{frame}
\end{document}


use

\newcommand\tabitem{\makebox[1em][r]{\textbullet~}}


This answer is similar in spirit to the one by @daleif. The difference is that I use the macro \RaggedRight (from the ragged2e package) instead of the basic \raggedright directive; the difference is that \RaggedRight permits hyphenation. I also use a \newcolumntype instruction to set up a new column type called "P" that sets in contents automatically in Ragged-Right paragraph mode.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{booktabs,array,ragged2e}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\newcommand{\tabitem}{\textbullet~~}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Symbolic Math Toolbox}
\begin{itemize}
\item Don't do nasty calculations by hand!
\item Symbolics vs.\ Numerics
\end{itemize}
\begin{tabular}{| p{1.4cm} | P{4cm} | P{4cm} |} \hline
Symbolic
& \tabitem Analytical solutions
& \tabitem Sometimes can't be solved \\
& \tabitem Lets you intuit things about solution form
& \tabitem Can be overly complicated \\ \hline
Numeric
& \tabitem Always get a solution
& \tabitem Hard to extract a deep understanding \\
& \tabitem Can make solutions accurate
& \tabitem Num.\ methods sometimes fail \\
& \tabitem Easy to code
& \tabitem Can take a while to compute \\  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

• Yes, that is a better solution – daleif Jul 28 '15 at 14:17

Presumably because ~ is stretchable and your columns are attempting to to keep a straight right edge.

Probably better to use

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{booktabs,array}% http://ctan.org/pkg/booktabs
\newcommand{\tabitem}{~~\llap{\textbullet}~~}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Symbolic Math Toolbox}
\begin{itemize}
\item Don't do nasty calculations by hand!
\item Symbolics vs. Numerics
\end{itemize}
\begin{tabular}{| >{\raggedright}p{1.3cm} | >{\raggedright}p{4cm} |
>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{4cm} |} \hline &
\\
\hline Symbolic & \tabitem Analytical solutions & \tabitem Sometimes
can't be solved
\\
& \tabitem Lets you intuit things about solution form & \tabitem Can
be overly complicated
\\
\hline Numeric & \tabitem Always get a solution & \tabitem Hard to
extract a deep understanding
\\
& \tabitem Can make solutions accurate & \tabitem Num. methods
sometimes fail
\\
& \tabitem Easy to code & \tabitem Can take a while to compute
\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{frame}
\end{document}


and thus setting the cols ragged right. Note the \arraybackslash added to the last column.

• BTW: Micos solution using \RaggedRight is probably better – daleif Jul 29 '15 at 7:13

Here is another solution with a tabitem environment, which actually is an itemize environment and so also takes care of the indention after a linebreak.

Unfortunately it seems that the array packages causes a spurious extra line at the end of the tabitem environment, so I haven't loaded this package and therefore also not the ragged2e package.

I want to point out that the definiton of this environment is not from me. I think I have it almost 10 years now, but cannot remember where I grabbed it from. I somebody knows, please raise the hand and I will add the source here.

\documentclass{beamer}
%\usepackage{array}
%\usepackage{ragged2e}
%    \newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\usepackage{paralist}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\newenvironment{tabitem}{%
\vspace*{-0.5\baselineskip}%
\setdefaultitem{\normalfont\bfseries\textbullet}%
{\normalfont\bfseries\textendash}{}{}%
\setdefaultleftmargin{1.1em}{1.1em}{}{}{}{}%
\begin{compactitem}%
}{%
\end{compactitem}%
\vspace*{-\baselineskip}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Symbolic Math Toolbox}
\begin{itemize}
\item Don't do nasty calculations by hand!
\item Symbolics vs.\ Numerics
\end{itemize}
%% use me when using array' and ragged2e'
%% but unfortunately this creates a spurious blank line after the tabitem'
%% environment
%\begin{tabular}{p{1.5cm}*{2}{P{4cm}}}
%
% therefore here the solution without these packages
\begin{tabular}{p{1.5cm}*{2}{p{4cm}}}
\toprule
\midrule
Symbolic & \begin{tabitem}
\item Analytical solutions
\item Lets you intuit things about solution form
\end{tabitem}
& \begin{tabitem}
\item Sometimes can't be solved
\item Can be overly complicated
\end{tabitem}                                         \\
\midrule
Numeric  & \begin{tabitem}
\item Always get a solution
\item Can make solutions accurate
\item Easy to code
\end{tabitem}
& \begin{tabitem}
\item Hard to extract a deep understanding
\item Num.\ methods sometimes fail
\item Can take a while to compute
\end{tabitem}                                         \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
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