table formatting issue: column width
EDIT: I got a reply on r/MicrosoftWord that solved the issue. If you are here facing the same, this was the fix:
>problem: table is set to ‘resize to fit contents’.
fix:
select whole table -> right click -> "table properties" -> "options" (bottom right of the new form that has opened up) -> unselect "resize fit to contents"
(link to the post on r/MicrosoftWord )
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I realize there is probably a solution/explanation to this somewhere on the internet but I'm in the middle of exam season and I just don't have the time. But maybe, some of you might know what's the issue here.
The issue at hand:
A 3x3 table with nothing fancy - no connected or divided cells, no differentiating borders or anything.
It looks pretty much like this:
| word | word | long text |
|---|---|---|
| word | word | long text |
| word | word | long text |
By "word", I mean literally one or two words, while "long text" is several lines.
I want to make the first and second column as narrow as sensible to minimise used up space. Automatic hyphenation is enabled.
This is what I want:
(please don't mind everything being German)
If I attempt to do this, there are two possible outcomes.
- it works perfectly fine. The word is automatically hyphenated and I can narrow the column as much as I want to - unfortunately, this isn't the case very often
- the first column only narrows as far as the un-hyphenated word goes. If I go any further, the second column widens and the third column narrows. It seems like the automatic hyphenation doesn't work. I have also taken a screenrecording (via imgur), maybe you wanna take a look. (please don't mind everything being German)
But it's not plausible that the automatic hyphenation doesn't work in general - if I type literally anywhere, it works perfectly fine. This is really the only exception.
I can't figure out what's the defining difference on wheter 1) or 2) happens. I can't figure out what's causing this.
And to be honest, it's just really annoying to manually have to type/delete hyphens every time I want to make the slightest change in the column width. Of course, it works and that's what I've been doing but I would love to have a proper fix.
Thanks in advance!
sidenote: I also posted this in r/MicrosoftWord & originally wanted to crosspost here, but that's not possible because of the embedded video.