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Is it possible to merge two or more cells in an org-mode table like when using \multicolumn{}{}{} or \multirow{}{}{} in LaTeX?

Something like this does not work:

|------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------|
|            |             Singular            | Plural      |
|            +-----------+----------+----------+-------------|
|            | Masculine | Neuter   | Feminine | All genders |
|------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------|
| Nominative | *der*     | *das*    | *die*    | *die*       |
| Accusative | *den*     | *das*    | *die*    | *die*       |
| Dative     | *dem*     | *dem*    | *der*    | *denen*     |
| Genetive   | *dessen*  | *dessen* | *deren*  | *deren*     |
|------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------|

Is there a way to construct such a table in org-mode?

NickD
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Tymric
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  • Not as far as I know, but there's [`table-mode`](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TableMode). – wvxvw Jan 12 '15 at 15:51
  • @wvxvw Interesting. Is it possible to integrate these tables within org-mode, perhaps even as a minor mode or between `#+BEGIN_SRC` and `#+END_SRC` tags? – Tymric Jan 12 '15 at 16:00
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    I'd try `#+begin_src table` but you'd need to handle the exporting somehow, and that sounds like a lot of trouble, unless there's already an exporeter for that... – wvxvw Jan 12 '15 at 16:38

1 Answers1

33

As @wvxvw points out, you can use table.el by Takaaki Ota. There is some built-in support for this in org-mode (see manual). Your example can be easily translated to table.el syntax by replacing some | with +: 

+------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+
|            |             Singular            | Plural      |
|            +-----------+----------+----------+-------------+
|            | Masculine | Neuter   | Feminine | All genders |
+------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+
| Nominative | *der*     | *das*    | *die*    | *die*       |
| Accusative | *den*     | *das*    | *die*    | *die*       |
| Dative     | *dem*     | *dem*    | *der*    | *denen*     |
| Genitive   | *dessen*  | *dessen* | *deren*  | *deren*     |
+------------+-----------+----------+----------+-------------+

The table can be edited using C-c ' and it exports fine with the HTML and LaTeX backends, except that org-mode syntax (such as using asterisks for bold) inside the cells is not recognised. Here is an example of rendered LaTeX export: enter image description here

JeanPierre
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deprecated
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  • Perfect! Thank you. As for bold type, the `` tag works just fine – Tymric Jan 13 '15 at 08:34
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    The sentence "Your example can be easily translated to table.el syntax by replacing some | with +:" could be understood as recommending manual translation; but I think that it is better to use the command org-table-create-with-table\.el, bound in Org Mode to ‘C-c ~’ – Jorge Feb 06 '17 at 17:01
  • Yes, I was not aware of that command - thank you! Although in this particular case the OP is starting with something that is neither a legal `org-mode` table nor a legal `table.el` table, so I doesn't work cleanly. – deprecated Feb 07 '17 at 20:36
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    What if I need latex fragments inside the table? – grepcake Apr 15 '20 at 11:54