This came up in the users list, but boils down to a feature request:
It would be nice if LyX could interpret a Ctrl-Enter in a variable-width
table cell as "insert the content in a \shortstack with a line-break at
this place".
On 2010-01-28, Guenter Milde wrote:
> On 2010-01-27, Uwe Stöhr wrote:
>> Vincent schrieb:
>>>>I have to "set" the table column widths [...], and then, possibly,
>>>>Ctrl+Enter will make the new line anyway.
>>> Yes, you have to set a column width :). Don't ask me why.
>> This is LaTeX. There is no other way because otherwise the width cannot
>> be calculated at which the line break should occur.
> But this is a technical restriction. A fixed witdth is required for
> automatic line wrapping. With manual line-breaks the column width can be
> calculated from the maximal line length.
> However, LaTeX does not allow manual line-breaks in a table cell.
> A workaround is to use the \shortstack macro (currently as ERT).
> This would lead to e.g. the following LaTeX source:
> \begin{tabular}{|c|p{3cm}|}
> \hline
> \shortstack{not so\\short\\stack} & fixed\\
> width\tabularnewline
> \hline
> \end{tabular}
> The vertical alignment needs some improvement, but generally this works.
Günter