Row Height Mysteries (Word 2003)

[Paul]

Hi,

I have been tasked with 'cleaning up' a document with several tables of
figures (accounts). 'Underlining' of some of the figures (e.g. at the end of
a column) has been acheived by placing a row beneath the figures and using a
series of 'm' dashes (I presume this has been done to keep the 'underlining'
the same width regardless of the number above - hence normal underlining is
not appropriate, but thinner than the width of the cell - hence a border is
not appropriate). The rows on which this 'underlining' appears are made very
thin so there is not a large gap between the 'underlining' and the number
above.

I have created a style for the 'underlining' to ensure consistency.

As the document has 'been around the block' a few times and the users are
very concerned about 'corrupt' formatting (strange formatting anomolies that
have crept into the document over the years making the document behave
strangely). I tidied it up, setting styles for all the kinds of text it
includes and ensuring all text is in one of the styles with no additional
formatting applied. I also decided to try saving as xml, then back to a doc
in the hope this might clear out any remaining anomolies.

After doing this, the row heights of the tables changed - the rows where
there is just the 'underlining' increased in height and I cannot get them to
reduce to their previous size without the 'text' (series of 'm' dashes)
becoming invisible (sitting too low in the cell to be seen).

I have compared to a previous version of the same document and formatting of
the style is identical and the settings for the table/row all appear to be
identical - however, in the 'old' version the text sits much higher in the
cell and the row can therefore be much thinner (which is the way they are
supposed to be).

Can anyone explain (or hazard a guess) as to what the process of saving to
xml and back again has changed in the table settings and how I can get them
back as desired?

TIA

Paul

 

[Greg]

Paul,

Now to the first question.

The cell alignment and padding may have been screwed up.

Try this on a table:

Sub Test()
Dim oTable As Table
Dim oCell As Cell
Set oTable = Selection.Tables(1)
For Each oCell In oTable.Range.Cells
With oCell
.VerticalAlignment = wdCellAlignVerticalTop
.TopPadding = "0.0"
End With
Next
End Sub

 

[PopS]

A couple of comments inline, but probably no help:

: Hi,
:
: I have been tasked with 'cleaning up' a document with several
tables of
: figures (accounts). 'Underlining' of some of the figures (e.g.
at the end of
: a column) has been acheived by placing a row beneath the
figures and using a
: series of 'm' dashes (I presume this has been done to keep the
'underlining'
: the same width regardless of the number above - hence normal
underlining is
: not appropriate, but thinner than the width of the cell - hence
a border is
: not appropriate). The rows on which this 'underlining' appears
are made very
: thin so there is not a large gap between the 'underlining' and
the number
: above.

Would an anaolgy for this be, say, the underline characters are
to be exactly one inch in length regardless of the length of the
characters above it?
Are you sure it's being used as an underline and not just a
"column" header?
There are a couple ways Word could handle that.
:
: I have created a style for the 'underlining' to ensure
consistency.
:
: As the document has 'been around the block' a few times and the
users are
: very concerned about 'corrupt' formatting (strange formatting
anomolies that
: have crept into the document over the years making the document
behave
: strangely). I tidied it up, setting styles for all the kinds of
text it
: includes and ensuring all text is in one of the styles with no
additional
: formatting applied.

Good move.

I also decided to try saving as xml, then back to a doc
: in the hope this might clear out any remaining anomolies.

Have you tried copying the entire file, less that very last
paragraph mark, to a new blank document? That will sometimes
straighten out a lot of interesting things. Must be a lot of
info stored in that last para mark.

:
: After doing this, the row heights of the tables changed - the
rows where
: there is just the 'underlining' increased in height and I
cannot get them to
: reduce to their previous size without the 'text' (series of 'm'
dashes)
: becoming invisible (sitting too low in the cell to be seen).

Grab one of the rows, set the top cell padding to 0, and/or make
it larger - see if the dashes come back.
If you can get them back and prove they're still there, then
you set the alignment to Top instead of Center or Bottom, and the
dashes should become visible again.
Once you prove that works, then you can select the whole thing
and repeat it.

:
: I have compared to a previous version of the same document and
formatting of
: the style is identical and the settings for the table/row all
appear to be
: identical - however, in the 'old' version the text sits much
higher in the
: cell and the row can therefore be much thinner (which is the
way they are
: supposed to be).

Sounds like a simple matter of setting the vertical cell spacing
to Top? No?

:
: Can anyone explain (or hazard a guess) as to what the process
of saving to
: xml and back again has changed in the table settings and how I
can get them
: back as desired?

No idea; it's never helped me wtih anything.
:
: TIA
:
: Paul
:
: --
: Visit my website www.pdtech.co.uk for Access Developer
Resources
:
:

 

[Paul]

Thanks Pops and Greg,

I have checked the cell alignment and padding options and used the Macro
that Greg kindly supplied, but the two tables still do not come out the
same. To prove I'm not going mad, I've put the tables on my website if you
want to quickly download and take a look. I've removed the figures (as they
are sensitive) but you can see that the 'underlining' on the two tables is
different (the row height and position within the row).

http://www.pdtech.co.uk/Tables.zip

If you can let me know how I can get the rows on the Updated Table to match
those on the Original Table it would be much appreciated.

TIA

Paul

 

[Greg]

Paul,

I can't do anything with the table in the updated document because it
is locked for edit. I can copy that table into the original document
and when I do it looks the same as the table existing in that document.

 

[Paul]

Hi Greg,

Sorry - forgot to remove the formatting lock. There is no password so you
can just unprotect the document. I have also replaced the zip file on the
web site with an unprotected version.

http://www.pdtech.co.uk/Tables.zip

Thanks

Paul

 

[Greg]

Pual,

I'm stumped. I can't figure out the difference between the two tables
(other than they don't look the same). I have never seen a table like
the original that doesn't have or at least doesn't appear to have end
of cell markers. Sorry.

 

[PopS]

: Pual,
:
: I'm stumped. I can't figure out the difference between the two
tables
: (other than they don't look the same). I have never seen a
table like
: the original that doesn't have or at least doesn't appear to
have end
: of cell markers. Sorry.
:
Same here :-{

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In your UpdatedTable, go to Tools | Options | Compatibility and check the
box for "Don't add space for raised/lowered characters." Sorry I didn't get
around to this sooner.

 

[Greg]

Suzanne,

You are a legend. I bow in the presence of excellence ;-)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, having paid little attention to the thread (I've got three brothers
visiting and my father-in-law died last week), I wasted a lot of time
assuming the lines were a paragraph border in the row above and that there
was a discrepancy between Table Text and Thin styles. Once I got that sorted
and saw that the Thin style was Raised, checking the Compatibility Options
was a natural. Those options are such terra incognita that it's amazing how
much stuff can go wrong there.

 

[Paul]

Thanks, that worked really well.