Fit table to page columns

[Dan Kelly]

I am designing a page layout with 3 text columns on the page and am having
problems with the behaviour of tables with those columns.

When I create a tabe the outer margins of the table are created in the
gutter of the text columns - this is so that the text *within* the table
aligns with the text in the column.

I do not want this to happen.

I want the edges of the table to align with the edges of the column text and
the text within the table to be indented

Is this possible? I am using Word 2000...

 

[Tom Conrad]

This used to drive my tech editor crazy, too.

When a table is aligned left, the alignment function aligns the table's text
boundaries with the page's left margin (text boundary), vice aligning the
graphic borders with the margin.

What this means is that the table's border lines hang into the left margin,
while the table text is aligned with the left page margin. This effect is
exaggerated when the table cell has internal left/right margins. Oddly, this
problem only occurs relative to the page's left/right margins not the top and
bottom margins. Go figure.

You can click and drag the left and right border edges to the desired
position to align the graphic borders of your table with the page or column
margin (text boundary). When you drag the left table border to the right, you
are actually setting the table's indent from left property.

Alternately, you can set the indent under the table properties page.
(Sorry, I don't remember if Word 2000 offered a table properties function.)

If you have set the table properties to "auto resize to fit contents" or set
the "autofit to windows" option, then the table may fight these changes.

To make my tech editor happy, I try to make tables that are not wider than
the margins, and I select and center the entire table.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you customarily use borderless tables, you appreciate this formatting, as
it aligns tabular text with other text on the page; but I agree that there
ought to be an easier way to align the borders with the margins. There are a
number of Compatibility Options pertaining to tables that might be worth
experimenting with.