Document 502

The LaTeX longtable package

Version: 3.x, 4.x, 5.x - Scientific WorkPlace & Scientific Word

The package defines a longtable environment that is a multipage version of tabular. The tables produced by the package can be broken by standard TeX page-breaking algorithms. The tables can break between but not within rows. The package maintains consistent column widths from page to page, unlike the supertabular package. The package provides customized captions on the first and subsequent pages of the table, but you may find that the caption package is more convenient to use for that purpose.

After you add the package, you can use the options available through the Options and Packages command on the Typeset menu aid in debugging. The package commands define and customize the longtable environment. Commands are available to split the table into a series of chunks for easier management by TeX. Additional commands position the table, define rows, define breaks, and make footnotes available within a table environment. The longtable package doesn't require the array package, but if array is added to the document, the longtable package uses extended features. See the package documentation for a discussion of how to use each option, command, and parameter.

To use the longtable package in your document, you must define the entire longtable environment in an encapsulated TeX field. Also, you may have to process the document through LaTeX three or four times to achieve the correct appearance of columns in a longtable environment. Using the package requires a solid knowledge of LaTeX. For more information, see the package documentation and the PackageSample-longtable.tex file in the SWSamples directory of your program installation. The longtable package is installed in the TCITeX/TeX/LaTeX/required/tools directory as part of the Standard LaTeX Tools Bundle.

Last revised 02/10/06

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