Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ align vertical text in a tabular

[Elendil]

Hello everybody,

my problem is the following: I would like to create a table that contains a column with only rotated text in it in order to save space (I also tried this with the rotatebox-command). However, this way I waste space above each itemization. Is there a way to align the text of the first column (with the vertical text)?
Every attempt of centering the sideways text did not change anything to the output.

Here is my minimum example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{rotating}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[alwaysadjust]{paralist}


\begin{document}

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|c|X|X|}
  \hline 
  \begin{sideways}
    first category
  \end{sideways}
  &   \begin{compactitem}
    \item first 
    \item second  
    \item third  
  \end{compactitem}
  &   \begin{compactitem}
    \item first 
    \item second  
    \item third  
  \end{compactitem}
 \\ 
  \hline 
  \begin{sideways}
    second category   
  \end{sideways}
  &
  \begin{compactitem}
    \item first 
    \item second  
    \item third  
  \end{compactitem}
  &   \begin{compactitem}
    \item first 
    \item second  
    \item third  
  \end{compactitem} \\ 
  \hline 
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

Thanks in advance,
Elendil

[kaiserkarl13]

You can get something close to what I suspect you want with the following:

Code: Select all

\raisebox{-4em}{
\begin{sideways}
  {first category}
\end{sideways}}

(do the same around your second category).

If you're going to do this for a bunch of entries, I recommend defining a new command, such as

Code: Select all

\newcommand{\raiserot}[2]{\raisebox{#1}{%
  \begin{sideways}%
    #2
  \end{sideways}%
  }%
}