Individual cell adjustment in a table

[dlcrow]

I'm using Word2000 (No SR) in Win98 SE. I created (drew using the pencil) a new table. It was pretty complex ie; many columns had different number of rows. When I click on a cell boundary to adjust the row size up or down, I get that irritating line which runs all the way across the table and adjusts every cell to the right and left. I only want to adjust the cell in one column. I tried right-clicking and choosing the "Cell" tab, but it doesn't seem to work very well. Any suggestions?

[Charles Kenyon]

You might try selecting the two cells involved and then clicking on the boundary. That's what works for me when I'm dealing with vertical boundaries.

Not sure, though that it can be done.[img]/w3timages/icons/hairy.gif[/img]

[dlcrow]

Thanks for the idea but it didn't work. I guess I can just use the eraser then redraw the line.

[Gary Frieder]

The method Charles suggested works, but you do need to press the Alt key and hold it down, while 'grabbing' and moving the cell boundaries.

Here are two more ways you can accomplish it:

1) With your insertion point in the cell whose right boundary you want to adjust, go to Table>Table Properties, and click to select the Cell tab. Under Size, change the Preferred Width setting. This will affect only that individual cell.

2) If you ever want to temporarily isolate a row or rows from the rest of the table, in order to do some tricky formatting, you can do so by using the Split Table function (Table>Split Table, or Shift+Control, Enter on the keyboard) - by using it twice, i.e. below and above the rows you want separated, you can temporarily split them from the rest of the table.
To unsplit the table, you need to delete the paragraph marks that the split table function has inserted. You must use the Delete key to remove these, cut and backspace won't do.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[dlcrow]

>>The method Charles suggested works, but you do need to press the Alt key and hold it down, while 'grabbing' and moving the cell boundaries.

NO NO NO, it does not work! I still get the line running all the way across the page when I hold down the Alt key. Please don't give advice if you didn't experiment first. I even tried it while holding the Shift key and the Ctrl key. No dice either way. Theory is useless without an experiment.

>>1) With your insertion point in the cell whose right boundary you want to adjust, go to Table>Table Properties, and click to select the Cell tab. Under Size, change the Preferred Width setting. This will affect only that individual cell.

As I mentioned in my original post, this didn't work either since the "Cell" tab of the "Table Properties" dialog only provides for "Prefered width" and says nothing about height. I was needing help with "up or down" not "left or right. You did read the post didn't you?

[Eileen]

My *dear* David,

I'm afraid that tone will never do! [img]/w3timages/icons/dragon.gif[/img]
You will never be offered help from anybody if you can't learn a little grace! Nobody is *obliged* to answer your posts, remember.

[Gary Frieder]

David,

I did misread your first note; sorry, these things do sometimes happen on a busy day[img]/w3timages/icons/hairy.gif[/img].

The suggestions I made were tested and work great if you're trying to adjust the width of an individual cell, rather than the height as you're trying to do.

If I hadn't misread your first note, I wouldn't have made the effort to respond, as I don't know of any way to adjust the height of an individual cell.

Hope you will read Eileen's response as well!

Gary

[dlcrow]

Sorry to all for the negative tone. I let my frustration get the best of me. Erasing and redrawing is working fine but I can't help but wonder why there also isn't a "Prefered height" adjustment on the "Cell" tab.

[Gary Frieder]

The Draw Table feature is a very odd creature.

You can do things with it that you can't do with standard table methods (like have cells of different height in the same 'row'), but the downside is that this feature doesn't integrate well into the rest of the Word world.