Preferred width

[Mister.Fred.Ma]

Could someone please describe when they take effect? I googled it,
and most of the time, it is referred to in a soup of to-do's to
achieve a specific effect. This parameter exists for table, column,
and cell tabs for table properties. They can be hard coded in inches
or relatively coded as a percentage. On some tables, I have 100% for
all 3 tabs, and for another, I have 100% on some tabs, and 5.93" in
another. The confusing thing is that the setting seems to have a life
of its own, and it doesn't seem to mattter whether I specify
percentages or inches, it will take on the form that it does no matter
what. When does one tab take precedence over the other, when is
percentage enforced, and when is inches enforced? I was hoping that
something as fundamental as this behaviour would be clearly
documented, but I haven't been able to find it.

Thanks a million.

 

[Tony Jollans]

As far as I know there is no conflict between percentages and measurements
but preferred width is just that, preferred. If (and it can be quite a big
if) there are no constraining factors your preferred width will be honoured
but if some cells have a fixed width or the table has a fixed size or the
autofit settings force some other behaviour or ... you get the picture - it
can be a bit of a black art.

 

[Mister.Fred.Ma]

As far as I know there is no conflict between percentages and measurements
but preferred width is just that, preferred. If (and it can be quite a big
if) there are no constraining factors your preferred width will be honoured
but if some cells have a fixed width or the table has a fixed size or the
autofit settings force some other behaviour or ... you get the picture - it
can be a bit of a black art.

I think that is in fact the difficulty -- that it is a black art.
There are probably rules and policies of table behaviour that the
program designer had in mind. If these were documented, users could
actually *know* how to set the switches to achieve the desired effect
rather than using trial and error, with not necessarily the same
result each time. Or at least know the most likely things to try. I
guess I'm looking for the rules governing how and when these switches
affect the table. What I've found instead are web pages that refer to
the switches amidst a bunch of other actions to achieve specific end
effects (great if that happens to be the end effect you want, but not
giving much insight into the rules governing when and how the switch
takes effect).

 

[Stefan Blom]

The table width seems to take precedence over column widths: for
example, in a two column table, if column widths are 2 cm, and you set
the table width to 12 cm, columns will expand (proportionally).
Actually, this is what you use when you resize a table as explained at
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/FitTableToPage.htm).

In other words, if you want control, don't mix relative and absolute
measurements.

Generally speaking, I'd choose Table | AutoFit | Fixed Column Width to
force fixed widths in a table, or Table | AutoFit | AutoFit to Window
to get a variable width. (Note that the latter option also sets the
"Automatically resize to fit contents" option in the Table Options
dialog box.)