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

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-01-16T01:25:34+00:00

    Are you running Word in "Mouse mode" or "Touch mode"  You can add a button to the Quick Access Toolbar to change the mode (You will find it in the All Commands group or the Commands not in Ribbon group)

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  2. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-01-15T23:12:20+00:00

    You'll find instructions on wrapping long URLs in the article at http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NoWidthSpace.htm. The article may not be updated for the most recent versions of Word, but the basic principles still apply.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-01-15T21:39:35+00:00

    When the text in the cell is very wide, such as  along url, the url text cannot be wrapped. Is there any way to get the table to allow the width to be smaller than the width of the url or long single word - i cannot get it to wrap.

    Initially I was seeing that the table column could not be resized at all. nothing would work, the table layout was frozen and could not be changed at all. 

    I cannot seem to recreate the situation where i cannot drag the columns at all anymore.

    I selected "distribute columns evenly" and after that, the behavior of not being able to resize at all is gone. I cannot get it to do that anymore.  i could not make any column bigger or smaller. now i can resize the columns, but i cannot make the url text (like one long word) wrap. the column will not go any smaller than the width of the url i have pasted in the cell

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  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-01-15T20:28:26+00:00

    I have no problem dragging column borders here. Can you change the widths in the Table Properties dialog box?

    Could you share an example document that includes a problem table?

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