Hello.

I am running Word 2013 on W7. I expect my situation has come up several times before, but I can't find any ideas in my books.

I want to keep minutes of meetings by using a long table (perhaps some 4-5 pages long) with three columns. the first is to contain a number, the second and widest the actual text, and the third quite short as it only needs to contain the initials of whoever is charged with dealing with the issue.

My problem is that wordwrap in the cells of the middle column does not seem to be working correctly. In the snapshot of the page below, I would have expected the text to break at the start of the third column, but it seems almost as if the second column is being covered by the third!



Can anybody help, please?

[IMG]e:\richard\my documents\+temporary files\word.help.PNG[/IMG]

Attached Images

word help.PNG (22.3 KB, 17 views)

See if there is a negative right indent set for the text paragraph in the affected cells.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hello Stefan

Many thanks for your speedy email.

I'm sorry that I have to ask you this, but how will I know that "there is a negative right indent set"? What do I look for, please?

Sorry to be a pain.

Click in the text paragraph (in the cell). On the Home tab, click the dialog launcher button in the Paragraph group to display the Paragraph dialog box.


Under "Indentation," what do you see in the "Right" box? If the value there is negative, you want to change it.

Attached Images

ParagraphDialogBox.PNG (123.0 KB, 14 views)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hello Stefan

Many, many thanks for your response - it worked like a dream! I'm so pleased and grateful for you showing me that. I could not find any reference to it in any of my books on Word, even though it is obviously very important to people such as I who were struggling with layouts! The next question is how did I manage to get a negative value in the first place ...?

Thanks once again.

Richard

If you copied and pasted text paragraphs from some other source, it is possible that is where the negative indent comes from.

Alternatively, the indents might have been created in the table style itself.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Hello Stefan

Aaaaaaahh! Yes, I do remember cutting and pasting text. Something to look out for!

Many thanks once again.

Richard

You can choose to paste in plain text format, for example, by clicking the Paste Options button and choosing the Keep Text Only option. That will clear any formatting which may be brought in from the source document.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Once again you come up trumps, Stefan. Thanks for all your help - so promptly given!

Richard