Cannot resize table columns in word 2013

Anonymous
2015-01-15T19:51:53+00:00

I have just recently started using MS Office 2013. In the past, it was EASY to create a table and then highlight a column and hover over the vertical line between columns, the mouse pointer would change to the nifty little arrow line arrow pointer, and then you could drag the column and change its width. it was easy, intuitive, simple, -- a total no-brainer.

Now in Word 2013, that no longer works. I cannot drag the column widths, and I cannot change the width at all for the columns in my table.

I have looked for settings in many places, but I cannot seem to get the table to allow me to drag and resize the columns in any way.

It is very annoying that such simple intuitive functionality from past versions does not work anymore in Office 2013, Word 2013.

Stefan's answer is only a partial answer. no idea why the tables were locked, but the long urls was a side issue related issue.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-22T19:51:01+00:00

    I have my page set up for duplex... I found that I can adjust table columns just like always when it's on the ODD page, but as soon as I try to adjust anything on the EVEN page, they don't work no matter what I do.  

    My solution was to insert a page break to force to an odd page, adjust table, then remove my page break.  

    This workaround works on my system. Thank you for the suggestion!

    For reference, my software version is:

    Office Professional Plus 2016

    Version 1710

    Build 8625.2127

    I've been using this same template for several years, including for over a year with Word 2016 with no modifications to the template. I created a new document from the two days ago, and have experienced this table resizing problem for the first time.

    Correspondingly, I would lean towards this being a new issue, introduced by a recent Office update. But, looking at the dates on the other posts in this thread, that clearly can't be the (only) case. I'm not sure why this problem just now arose in my environment,. Nonetheless, I appreciate everyone offering their opinions. Thanks again!

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-18T07:48:38+00:00

    The problem of reduced capacity to catch table borders with the mouse is there for any kind of table and was introduced, I believe, with the new way to insert rows, that seems me not very useful.

    For sure Microsoft knows it but in many years seems not to be interested in solving it.

    Word is by now a dinosaurus that is not extinct only because there is nothing better - the software technology if far from being vital today and we must settle for prehystorical monsters, as it happens for Excel. PowerPoint, Adobe products and so on.

    When I started as a software developer in the 70-ties I imagined a future of perfect and always improving applications. I could not imagine the development of office applications definitely stopping as it happened.

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  3. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-11-17T21:29:46+00:00

    The problem with resizing table columns in a document with an odd/even page layout has been confirmed earlier and it has been reported to Microsoft (see my reply from November 2016).

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-11-17T13:31:15+00:00

    Unfortunately, that is not the problem.

    The issue appears to be the fact that I'm using a template that has odd/even pages. I followed someone else's suggestion of a temporary page break before the table in question to position it onto an odd page. That enabled me to adjust the columns. When I removed the page break and the table returned to the even page, the column widths stayed as corrected.

    Horrible "solution" but it worked

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-11-17T07:21:37+00:00

    Thanks for you message.

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