Hi, my name is Christopher. Every time I go to change the font size in a table, it seems to change the size of or something about the table. It is hard to say what or by what degree, as it does so quite automatically and quickly and simultaneously with my attempt to change the font size. Since this is happening by default and w/o my prior consent, I am guessing someone might understand the mechanism to which I am referring?



I am printing 100s of these tables, all with different information in them, and so the expectation is that they all need to be of uniform size (that is, the tables themselves). However, the information in them is, of course, not uniform. And some tables require more information than others—thus a smaller font size will be required.

This has to be an easy fix, right haha?

Thank you,

Christopher

Have a look at the table's Table Properties > Table tab > Options

Is it set to 'Automatically resize to fit contents'? Also verify the Cell Margins of each table match.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi, thanks. But I had already tried unchecking that. It didn't work. I have attached a copy of my file. As you can see, it is an index card. I change the font size and the row shrinks with it, thus messing up my otherwise perfect construction of an index card. The font size should be able to exist independently of the row size. I find it difficult to fathom that this is an impossibility in the year of 2023.

Attached Files

Vocab.docx (17.7 KB, 2 views)

Christopher

Ahh, now you are making it clearer that you are talking about row heights. Yes it is an easy fix.

In the same Table Properties dialog you can go to the Row tab and specify the row height. Row heights are usually not specified which allows the row automatically expand and contract according to the content put into them (including the font size and paragraph spacing settings). You can set the row height to be a fixed height (aka Exactly) or a minimum (aka At Least) height.

Note that setting an exact height might be a problem if you choose to add content in there which disappears below what is 'visible' in that row. Note also that different rows can have different row height settings applied so if you want ALL rows to have the same setting then select all those rows before changing the row height settings.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Hi, thanks for the reply. I didn't have a chance to get back to you last night. So I go to "specify row height" and all of mine are at 0". I don't understand what that means for my purposes. So I played around with it a little, just trying to make sense of what it means, I figure if they are already at 0" I should switch their setting to "exactly" and thereby it won't expand and contrast with every change of the font—but in vain. It did not work.

I also don't understand why it says 0" anyway, as there is some height to the rows. If there was no height to the rows, there would be no rows lol?

The default size is to not specify a row height.

When you tick the option to set a row height then you gain the ability to specify a row height (in cm, inches or points) it defaults to 'At Least' so a measurement to go with that of zero would be ignored because each row contains a paragraph that does have some height so this overrides the minimal size.

If you set an exact row height of 0 then the number (rightfully) gets ignored. But if you set it to 0.1cm then that height won't get ignored.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Thank you. But then what should I set it to if I want to keep it exactly the same? How do I find out the present height of the rows?

The GUI won't tell you what 'exactly the same' is until you actually put in something.

You can probably deduce it by adding up the heights that play a factor (top & bottom cell margins, paragraph height, space before and after)

But I am choosing to be less scientific and follow the 'suck it and see' methodology. I found that '0.49 cm' Exactly appears to give the same row height without the ability to get bigger. If you put this measurement in on your machine it will automatically convert to show what that is in inches.

I note that making tiny incremental changes to an exact row height is ignored by Word BUT if you make a big change and then make that tiny change then you will see the tiny change actually sticks. I don't know why Microsoft would have thought that was a good idea.
eg. Change exact row height from 0.48cm to 0.5cm - remains at 0.48cm
Change exact row height from 0.48cm to 0.8cm to 0.5cm - row becomes 0.5cm

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Sir, that is pretty dang close, for which I give you much credit, as I do not know how you ascertained such information. But it is not quite right. It is slightly bigger than my row heights. I know it is the case because 0.49 cm = 0.1929134 inches. I put the latter figure into the part asking me for it and if I do so for each row, my last row, the one that is not quite as large as the other ones (the one that all real index cards have too), ends up on a different page.

Therefore your estimation, though much more accurate than anything of which I am capable, is not quite on the dot. Can we get closer?

(I think they make this more difficult than it need be!)

Sir, hopefully you are still with me. I thought I had it when it occurred to me to just divide the number of rows into the height of the document, four inches, for it is a 4x6 index card with which we are dealing. But then I was absolutely crushed when I found out it would not be so simple because of the last little row that all index cards have. However, in any case, 18 rows into four inches is 0.222222 and 17 rows into four inches is 0.235294. In any case, neither of which is even very close to 0.1929134, which is itself too big anyway. So how in the world does that make any sense?


I feel as though the mystery is just deepening …

Oh wait, what about the top? :/ Gee golly!

The row height you experience WHEN the row height is automatic will be impacted by:
1. Paragraph height (font size, font name, space before, space after, paragraph height setting)
2. Table border thickness
3. Table cell top and bottom padding

The fact that changing the typeface (font name) in an auto height row makes a very significant change to the row height gives an indication that it is a complete waste of valuable time to try to calculate exactly how tall that row is.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

I respect your opinion, sir. Good day.