Gaps between lines of text in tables

[Martin Nelson]

Hi,

I use a two column table for the body of my resume. I use soft returns (I
think this is the right term for Shift-Return) between lines within a cell.
I would like to slightly tighten the space between lines of adjacent cells
so I can fit more on a page. In other words, I'd like the gap between cells
to be a little smaller. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,
--
Martin

I'm running
Macintosh G4, Dual 800
1 GB RAM
OS X.2.8
MS Office X Service Release 1

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I use a two column table for the body of my resume. I use soft returns (I

think this is the right term for Shift-Return) between lines within a cell.

"manual line break" is the term Word uses, just fyi.

Re: Gaps between lines of text in tables

Looking at your subject line, I wrote this:

Format | Paragraph, spacing controls line spacing, for both line breaks and
lines wrapping naturally. Single spacing for 12pt text is actually 14pt (I
think, but it definitely includes a little extra space (maybe called
leading?)), so setting it to Exactly 12pt will tighten it a little. Or
translate for your text size, experiment. I tried 11pt for 12pt text and
started seeing descenders on j, g, etc cut off.

I would like to slightly tighten the space between lines of adjacent cells
so I can fit more on a page. In other words, I'd like the gap between cells
to be a little smaller. Is there a way to do this?

Then I realized I'm not sure that answers your question. In fact, I can't
really tell what you want to shrink--horizontal or vertical space? But
there should be no space between cells of a table... I'm confused.

You may need to set the Row Height to some Exact figure, via Table | Table
Properties.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Martin:

You may also wish to investigate Table>Table Properties>Options... And
reduce the default cell margins.

I suggest that you get out of the habit of using hard returns in tables if
you can, they will complicate your life no end later on, because the tables
won't convert or paste cleanly.

Use Format>Paragraph to set your space above and below (two points looks
nice in most tables).

Daiya's right, setting exact line heights is one way to force things, but be
aware there's no free lunch: text formatted with exact line heights can
behave unpredictably when you come to introduce inline graphics or larger
formatting. You could try a setting of "At Least": if that does what you
want, it also retains the ability to expand if required.

Cheers

"manual line break" is the term Word uses, just fyi.


Looking at your subject line, I wrote this:

Format | Paragraph, spacing controls line spacing, for both line breaks and
lines wrapping naturally. Single spacing for 12pt text is actually 14pt (I
think, but it definitely includes a little extra space (maybe called
leading?)), so setting it to Exactly 12pt will tighten it a little. Or
translate for your text size, experiment. I tried 11pt for 12pt text and
started seeing descenders on j, g, etc cut off.


Then I realized I'm not sure that answers your question. In fact, I can't
really tell what you want to shrink--horizontal or vertical space? But
there should be no space between cells of a table... I'm confused.

You may need to set the Row Height to some Exact figure, via Table | Table
Properties.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Martin-

Hopefully the info from Daiya and/or John has resolved your issue, but you
might want to check one other thing.

While in the Table, go to Table>Table Properties and on the Table page click
the Options Button. There is another setting there called 'Allow spacing
between cells'. If it's checked, that's your problem. Either remove the
check or change the value to a more suitable amount.

HTH |:>)

Hi,

I use a two column table for the body of my resume. I use soft returns (I
think this is the right term for Shift-Return) between lines within a cell.
I would like to slightly tighten the space between lines of adjacent cells
so I can fit more on a page. In other words, I'd like the gap between cells
to be a little smaller. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,

-- (e-mail address removed)