[OS X TeX] Figures & Tables - Miscellaneous Issues

[KHALID NADIRI]

Here's a MWE (almost identical to the previous one) with my (rather poor) attempts to use the \phantom, \bigstrut and \rule commands to create evenly spaced rows, with the text vertically centered.  Any suggestions here?

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\documentclass[11pt,letterpaper,notitlepage]{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
%\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{tabulary}
\usepackage{nccfoots}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{titling}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[font=bf]{caption}
\usepackage{bigstrut}

\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\tikzset{
%Define standard arrow tip
>=stealth',
%Define style for different line styles
help lines/.style={dashed, thick},
axis/.style={<->},
important line/.style={very thick},
connection/.style={thick, dotted},
}

\def\name{Khalid H. Nadiri}
\begin{document}

\section{Research Schedule}

\begin{table}[thbp]
\begin{center}
\noindent\makebox[\textwidth]{%
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}
\begin{tabularx}{1.18\textwidth}{| l | X |}
\hline
\rowcolor[gray]{.93}
\textbf{Time Period} & \textbf{Research Items} \\
\hline
January 2011 -- September 2011 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah \phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\phantom{aaa}\\
\hline
June 2011 -- December 2011 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah \\
\hline
December 2011 -- January 2012 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah \\
\hline
January 2012 -- March 2012 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah\\
\hline
April 2012 & \emph{Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah} \bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\bigstrut\\
\hline
May 2012 -- December 2012 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah \\
\hline
January 2013 -- May 2013 & Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah BlahBlah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah \\
\hline
May 2013 & \rule[10em]{0pt}{0pt}\emph{Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah} \rule[10em]{0pt}{0pt} \\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
}
\end{center}
\end{table}

\end{document} 

On Jan 27, 2011, at 8:07 AM, Peter Dyballa wrote:

> 
> Am 27.01.2011 um 05:40 schrieb KHALID NADIRI:
> 
>> What's the simplest way of doing this?
> 
> Giving a working minimal example. Can you give one to work on it?
> 
> --
> Greetings
> 
>  Pete
> 
> A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
> 
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