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Copper Contributor

Sep 10, 2021

Can't adjust table column width

Working in windows 10, MS Word 2019 and built a pretty long table with 4 columns. Unable to keep columns adjusted to a new width. I tried all the standard procedures in MS Word, and even went on the...

MVP

Sep 12, 2021

Set the column widths as you want them to be -- either by dragging the column borders or the markers on the ribbon, or using the numeric settings on the Table Layout ribbon or in the Table Properties > Column dialog. Then click Table Layout > Autofit > Fixed Column Width. The widths should stay as you set them unless you deliberately change the settings again.

April-ACNB
Copper Contributor
Dec 12, 2022
Jay Freedman The posted solutions did not work for me. I had added a column to the left in an existing table. The right edge of the column to the right went off the page (it was a two-column table). The fix that worked for me was to change the orientation to landscape and select a paper size large enough for the whole table to appear on the page. For me, that meant selecting tabloid (11" x 17"). Then I could grab the right edge of the table and size that column so that the whole table would appear on a portrait-oriented 8.8" x 11" page. I then changed to size and orientation back to portrait, letter size.
- mwhittdivertinccom
  Copper Contributor
  Jan 12, 2023
  April-ACNB
  
  Thanks for your post! It gave me some inspiration so that I was able to solve the same problem by right-clicking on the table, selecting 'AutoFit' from the dropdown list, and selecting 'Fixed Column Width' from the options. After that, I was able to change the column width as needed.
  Hope that helps someone else!
  - Dout_Jolani
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 16, 2023
    mwhittdivertinccom
    
    I though I understood tables until I faced the same problems. Previous solutions did not work of clearing the cell size, table size and width size. What eventually worked was to autofit to window.

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