How to make a Pandoc table wider than textwidth?

Question

I'm adding a table to a document and discovered that the columns are too narrow, making it a bit difficult to read. Therefore I'd like to make the entire table (and thus also the individual columns relative sizes) wider while keeping the textwidth of the rest of the document unchanged. Is it possible to do this using the Pandoc multi-line tables? Or do I need to use pure LaTeX for this table?

This is what the Pandoc markdown for my table looks like:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DSR Activity                           Description                                   In this thesis 
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Problem Identification & Motivation The specific research problem is defined,     The research problem was initially defined by Simon Hacks
                                       and the value of a solution is justified.     and Robert Lagerström in a thesis proposal. The value of
                                                                                     the solution is that the produced artifact will establish
                                                                                     a foundation for further work in EAD detection and analysis.

2. Defining Objectives for a Solution  The objectives of the solution are infered    In order to determine the objectives of the solution the problem
                                       from the problem definition and knowledge     definition is examined. 
                                       about what is possible and feasible. This     
                                       might e.g. be a description of how the        
                                       artifact is expected to support solutions
                                       to problems which have not yet been 
                                       addressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the resulting PDF (compiled simply using pandoc myfile.md -o myfile.pdf), where you can see that the table is only as wide as the textwidth:

In case it matters, I'm using

\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}

tarleb tarleb · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-31T17:03:24

A crude but effective method is to widen the \columwidth just for the table. You'll probably want to change the \LTleft table margin, like so:

```{=latex}
\newlength{\extraspace}
\setlength\extraspace{4cm}
\setlength\columnwidth{\columnwidth + \extraspace}
\setlength\LTleft{-0.5\extraspace + \tabcolsep}
```

Table goes here

```{=latex}
% restore old columnwidth, table placement
\setlength\columnwidth{\linewidth - 4cm}
\LTleft=\fill
```

Result:

How to make a Pandoc table wider than textwidth?

2 Answers