Forum Discussion
FLJerry
Sep 10, 2021Copper Contributor
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...
Jay Freedman
Sep 12, 2021MVP
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
Dec 12, 2022Copper Contributor
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.
- rehan128Jan 25, 2025Copper Contributor
thanks this solution worked. all other solution mentioned do not work
- mwhittdivertinccomJan 12, 2023Copper Contributor
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!
- Lady_GwynethJul 03, 2024Copper ContributorYes, this helped me! I am often working on tables that others create, and although I'm an MS Word SME, this is a setting I was unaware of. I was tearing my hair out trying to change column widths in a table, and this fixed my problem in an instant! Thank you so much!
- Dout_JolaniFeb 16, 2023Copper Contributor
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.