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Old 10-29-2014, 03:51 PM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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Hey! I got excellent help to my last question, but now I've got another little issue that I want to solve.



There's all sorts of ways to position text in a table and for how to wrap it around a table. However, I can't seem to find out how to make it so that a table cell won't expand when text hits the table's fixed limit AND, additionally, to have the cursor jump to the next cell to continue entering text.

The reason I want to do this is to create a document that sort of has the feel of a table (navigate with tabs) and also the look of a lined are for data input entry. The best way I can think of to do that is make a table with a number of narrow rows. The problem is that the text won't jump to the next row automatically. And every time you tab and begin in the new row, you have to make sure it doesn't auto-capitalize on you.

Thoughts?

p.s.

As a bonus, if it could create new rows if someone tries to go past the last row, that would be amazing, but perhaps a bit much to ask for.
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Old 10-29-2014, 04:03 PM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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As an additional bonus question, is it possible to make certain cells be skipped when they're tabbed to? Can this be applied to the above question to make those cells be skipped when text is being entered?
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Old 10-29-2014, 05:13 PM
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macropod macropod is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 32bit
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You can easily-enough prevent tables from adjusting themselves by:
1. Unchecking the 'Automatically resize to fit contents' option (Table Tools>Layout>Properties>Table>Options);
2. Specifying the table width (Table Tools>Layout>Properties>Table>Size>Preferred width);
3. Specifying the column width (Table Tools>Layout>Properties>Column>Size>Preferred width); and
4. Specifying an exact row height (Table Tools>Layout>Properties>Row>Size>Specify height)

You cannot have the cursor automatically jump to the next cell when typing in a table. If you want to simulate an underlined, multi-line input box:
1. Create a single cell with the required overall diemsnions;
2. Set a right-aligned tab-stop on the cell's right margin (remove any other tabstops);
3. Press Ctrl-Tab a couple of times to insert tabs into the cell (each one should now occupy a line on its own);
4. Select the whole cell and apply underlining;
5. Adjust the paragraph font, before/after spacing and line spacing to match your desired input format;
6. Press Ctrl-Tab however many more times you need to finish filling the cell.

From now on, anything typed into the cell will be underlined and will wrap until the cell is filled, without expanding the cell - the excess tabs will simply be pushed out of view.
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Old 10-29-2014, 05:39 PM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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Thank you for the prompt advice. I'll let you know how it works in a little bit when I try it out. However, I have no idea what a right-aligned tab stop is, but it's something I can google if you don't check back before I get to work on it.
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Old 10-29-2014, 05:49 PM
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In the top-left corner of the document pane you should see a small right-angled bracket that looks like an 'L'. That's for setting a left-aligned tab-stop. If you click on that twice it will display a backwards right-angled bracket, for a right-aligned tab-stop. To use it simply click in the cell, then click on the ruler at the position where you want the stop to go. If you can't get it exactly where you want it, you can drag it left or right to re-position it; otherwise you can use Home>Paragraph>Tabs to input the exact position you want for it (make sure to choose the appropriate options).
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Old 10-29-2014, 06:40 PM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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Everything works! Thanks.

Do you happen to know an answer to my second bonus question? (It was the one about setting a cell to be "skipped" when tabbing)

Also, I've noticed that if I decide to change my mind and not set rigid parameters on cell size that if I add content to the cell, the underline expands accordingly. However, even if I put in tab characters enough to fill the cell, when it expands, the bottom underline line will never fully fill the cell unless I manually adjust it. Is that unavoidable?
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Old 10-29-2014, 06:48 PM
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Unless you go down the path of using formfields or content controls, plus the 'filling in forms' editing restrictions, you can't constrain the tab behaviour.

As for your follow-up question, the only way to prevent the cell expanding uncontrollably would be to delete however many tabs are causing the unwanted effect.
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Old 10-29-2014, 07:04 PM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macropod View Post
Unless you go down the path of using formfields or content controls, plus the 'filling in forms' editing restrictions, you can't constrain the tab behaviour.

As for your follow-up question, the only way to prevent the cell expanding uncontrollably would be to delete however many tabs are causing the unwanted effect.
I do need to learn to use form fields. I started trying to use them recently, but I didn't know how to adjust the size and I needed a smaller field, so I gave up on it. That will be another question for another time.

I think this one is solved. Thanks!
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Old 01-13-2015, 09:25 AM
ShankedS ShankedS is offline Taking away text-wrap Windows 7 64bit Taking away text-wrap Office 2010 64bit
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Coming back to this, sorry. I'm trying to get the right-aligned tab stop to work and it isn't. I have the "L" facing backwards, but I see no way to set it on the ruler. What ends up happening is that when I'm typing in the input box, once I finish a line, the underlining stops at the final character instead of continuing to the edge of the table as expected.

If I hit "enter" to go down a couple of lines for separation is completely "erases" those underlined lines, leaving large blank gaps. Any suggestions?
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Old 01-13-2015, 01:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShankedS View Post
Coming back to this, sorry. I'm trying to get the right-aligned tab stop to work and it isn't. I have the "L" facing backwards, but I see no way to set it on the ruler.
To change it's positioning, all you need do is click on it and drag it to the left or right. Or you could use Paragraph>Tabs and work the dialogue box. In the latter case, you'd need to input the position for a new one and delete the old one.
Quote:
What ends up happening is that when I'm typing in the input box, once I finish a line, the underlining stops at the final character instead of continuing to the edge of the table as expected.

If I hit "enter" to go down a couple of lines for separation is completely "erases" those underlined lines, leaving large blank gaps. Any suggestions?
That's probably because you haven't set the tab-stop position far enough to the right. In any event, the instructions were to fill the cell with underlined tabs at the outset. That way, there'd be no need to press anything later on to finish filling the cell with underlines. Still, if that's what you wanted to do, you could achieve that by pressing Ctrl-Tab, not Enter.
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