Table Weirdness (Word 2000Win98/SR-1)

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I hope I can explain this clearly. When working with a complicated table, sometimes when I simply change a font size, bold text etc, my entire table will go berserk and widen cells and make a general mess. When I click “Undo” the table returns to normal AND the change is made as well. I don’t recall this happening in the past and I’m sure it’s not normal. I would think that undo would also undo the change I just made, but it doesn’t. Of course I am getting the effect I want in the table, but not sure why I am having to go through this. Is it something I am doing or is Word having a program glitch?

Marilyn

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Hi Marilyn,

Probably your table is set to Autofit according to cell content; you might be better off with “Table > AutoFit > Fixed column width”.

I don’t understand When I click “Undo” the table returns to normal AND the change is made as well.

Does the change get undone, or not? If not, you could look up the change that lead to the table being messed up by clicking on the ▼ arrow next to the Undo button (see below).

Klaus

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Hi Klaus,

No, I usually set my table to adjust to the window width since I work with a lot of columns. And the weird thing is that I don’t lose the change I made. It just seems I have to go through this motion to get the change to stick. Once I have clicked undo (the left hand undo icon) the table re-adjusts itself and the change remains. I would think, as I am sure you thought, that I would lose the change.

Marilyn

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That’s why I suggested to look in Undo right after the mess occurred.

If it’s some Auto-gizmo kicking in, it should show in the Undo list, and we may find a way to turn it off.

Klaus

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Perhaps I’d try to set AutoFit to fixed column width, and see if it still happens.

If that doesn’t do the trick, could you perhaps post a small sample, and describe what action messes up the table (“Format cell 1 in bold …”)?

Klaus

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Hi Klaus,

I understand what you mean now by checking the undo. I’ll do that next time this happens. I’ll also make a note of what action I took right after it happens again. I might have to be making changes to that document next week.

It is a collated file of 24 different forms. I created it that way since my client has me print sets of forms sometimes. Each form has its own graphics, so I know I am pushing this to the limit. I think I considered e-mailing the set to someone and then decided not to when I saw that it was 24 MB. I do have 256 megs of RAM, but maybe I could use more.

Marilyn

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Most of the 24 Megs will probably come from the (24?) pictures, if there are no other causes (embedded fonts, or “Fast saves” turned on).

If you need the pictures only for screen display (not for high-quality printing), you can probably change them to a lower resolution.

But I don’t think the weird table behaviour is a resource problem anyway…

Till these days,
Klaus

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Hi Klaus,

I do think I have my fast save on. When working with these complicated tables, I am always worried something will happen and I will forget to save or Word will lock up etc. However, maybe that *is* the problem as well.

Usually the graphics are all the same thing since these forms are all for the same product. They do, however have to be high quality since the forms are printed.

Marilyn

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It’s okay to “Save AutoRecover info,” although, with a document that large, there will be a noticeable lull in performance. But the “Allow fast saves” options is a shortcut to document corruption, so you should make sure that is turned off. (Tools|Options…|Save tab)

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I checked and fast save is off and Save Auto Recovery Info is turned on. So I guess I am smarter than I thought Thanks.

Marilyn

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Marilyn hi.

Did you resolve your original problem with the table reformatting when you changed a style component?

I am running O XP, Win XP and am having the same problem. I checked the advice that Klaus has given you, regarding the undo button, but it makes no difference in my document, which is very small. A table with about 20 lines used to format a report.

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Hi Phil:
I don’t have 2002, but the following corrects tables in Word 2000. Right click inside the table & choose Table/Properties/Options. Then uncheck the box “resize to fit contents”. That’s the default in Word 2000, & a terrible one at that.
Cheers,

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