Column width won't adjust

[t***@gmail.com]

Susan's fix was the only one that worked! I had to clear the preferreds for Table, Column, and Cell. They stayed unchecked as long as I didn't close the dialog box. They went back to checked as soon as I closed it.

But I closed it and immediately resized one column before it had the chance to recheck (real fast), and it stuck! Not ideal, to the say the least, but at least I don't have an 11" table any more!...

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

[[e-mail]]

Had this same problem. It went away when I turned off the Review markups.

The weirdest thing.

[Karolina Zajac]

Post by ***@dematic.com
Had this same problem. It went away when I turned off the Review markups.
The weirdest thing.

Thank you!! This fixed it for me!!

[L Brewer]

Post by Karolina Zajac

Post by ***@dematic.com
Had this same problem. It went away when I turned off the Review markups.
The weirdest thing.

Thank you!! This fixed it for me!!

Similar problem. Everything I did enlarged the 5-column table width eventually out to 9" wide. When I made sure each column's tabs aligned with the column width, I was finally able to reign in the page width of the columns.

[Tomoko Okayasu]

I had this same problem. Susan's fix worked! Thank you very much.

[Vanessa McCubbing]

I had this same problem. Susan's fix worked! Thank you very much.

Same issue, however by selecting the whole table (top left 4 point arrow) and then clicking Distribute Columns (Table Tools --> Layout --> Cell Size section --> Distribute Columns) the whole table reset and I was able to resize as needed.

Vanessa

[h***@shatollschool.edu.mv]

Select table and click clear formatting in the font tab.

[e***@gmail.com]

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

Hi, I had the same problem and found out the reason is that the column is automatically resized to fit contents. You can do the following to unfreeze the column:
1. Click "layout" besides "Table Design"
2. Click "Cell Margins"
3. the "Table Options" window will pop out
4. uncheck "Automatically resize to fit contents" under "Options".

[e***@gmail.com]

Post by e***@gmail.com

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

1. Click "layout" besides "Table Design"
2. Click "Cell Margins"
3. the "Table Options" window will pop out
4. uncheck "Automatically resize to fit contents" under "Options".

This worked fantastically! Easy fix! Thanks!

[n***@gmail.com]

Post by e***@gmail.com

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

1. Click "layout" besides "Table Design"
2. Click "Cell Margins"
3. the "Table Options" window will pop out
4. uncheck "Automatically resize to fit contents" under "Options".

This worked for me..!!
Thanks.

[KJ St.Pierre]

I find this the single most frustrating feature of Table Properties, and I'm
not sure what I tell you will be correct, but here's what eventually works
1. Disable auto resizing (Options... on the Table tab).
2. Disable any exact width for the entire table.
3. Clear any exact width setting on the *Cell* tab.
4. Then try to clear or change the exact width on the Column tab.
It sometimes takes several trips to Table Properties (and bouncing back and
forth between Cell and Column several times) to do this. I swear Word
accepts changes on only one tab at a time. And sometimes the only thing that
will break it loose is doing the first two or three of these and then
adjusting the column width on the ruler. Alternatively, you can restore the
old-fashioned Cell Height and Width dialog, which is better behaved; see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/TablePropProbs.htm
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

SOLVED: I had applied text wrap to all of my cells and then removed every preferred width in every place I could find in table properties - first in the table as a whole, then by columns, and then, cell by cell, until there was no doubt. None were checked with a preferred width. Still it tried to enforce 1.61" as a minimum for each of 4 columns in a page with a wide margin of 7.75. It would not let me change when there was no visible reason for this. I even reduced each cell to a single letter (a, b, c...) and it still wouldn't let me revise the width. Spacing between the cells I had set at .09" as usual (3 x .09 = .27" width used up), but then I found the problem: My left/right cell margins were .8 (4x2x.8= 6.4" used up) when they should have been set at .08 (.64" used up). I was used to the "8" as the default and didn't notice. I changed this in the table properties and suddenly the entire table fit, but there were some lines that were disproportionate ... I found that I couldn't just fix the cell margins in options at the table level. I had to go into the cell tab of the table properties and select the option for cells margins to "Same as the whole table". By the way, the checkmark doesn't stay. I went back with no changes and the checkmark was gone, so it acts more as a reset.

One of the big frustrations is that I would like to be able to LOCK these settings in the table properties. Regardless of unchecking the options to automatically fit, the table is subject to any other change revising the settings for preferred width. It would be nice if MS added a lock feature to the preferences so I can build a table and count on it not to shift.

[Margot de Dominicis]

THANK YOU!!!!

I find this the single most frustrating feature of Table Properties, and I'm
not sure what I tell you will be correct, but here's what eventually works
1. Disable auto resizing (Options... on the Table tab).
2. Disable any exact width for the entire table.
3. Clear any exact width setting on the *Cell* tab.
4. Then try to clear or change the exact width on the Column tab.
It sometimes takes several trips to Table Properties (and bouncing back and
forth between Cell and Column several times) to do this. I swear Word
accepts changes on only one tab at a time. And sometimes the only thing that
will break it loose is doing the first two or three of these and then
adjusting the column width on the ruler. Alternatively, you can restore the
old-fashioned Cell Height and Width dialog, which is better behaved; see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/TablePropProbs.htm
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

[Minnie Not a Mouse]

I find this the single most frustrating feature of Table Properties, and I'm
not sure what I tell you will be correct, but here's what eventually works
1. Disable auto resizing (Options... on the Table tab).
2. Disable any exact width for the entire table.
3. Clear any exact width setting on the *Cell* tab.
4. Then try to clear or change the exact width on the Column tab.
It sometimes takes several trips to Table Properties (and bouncing back and
forth between Cell and Column several times) to do this. I swear Word
accepts changes on only one tab at a time. And sometimes the only thing that
will break it loose is doing the first two or three of these and then
adjusting the column width on the ruler. Alternatively, you can restore the
old-fashioned Cell Height and Width dialog, which is better behaved; see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/TablePropProbs.htm
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word

Help all yot table wizards! Nothing seems to adjust the
column width of a table I inherited! The column width
markers on the ruler will dag but to no effect, the table
properties column setting will allow you to enter a new
value but the new width will not take. You can get the
double headed arrow to drag the column edge but nothing
moves! Finally I also tried playing around withthe autofit
opitons but nohting chagnes. Text wrap is set to on.
If I create a new table and choose fixed width, things are
OK and I can change col width later, but with the table I
inherited, I can not get the column width to change. Any
suggestions??
Susan

Suzanne : THANKYOU whooo hoooo I spent almost a day on this - trying to reformat some inherited templates that seem to have been set up by a moron!