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
    2017-11-17T13:31:15+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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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-16T22:57:38+00:00

    This may or not not be related to your issue, but if you are trying to get rid of extra space at the bottom of a row and can't, it is likely related to paragraph spacing. Yes, I know, there are likely no paragraph marks in your table which makes this solution completely and utterly counter intuitive (YooHoo... Microsoft: Are you listening?) 

    Follow these steps:

    1. Click anywhere in your table
    2. Press : ctrl+A (select all)
    3. Go to the Home Tab.
    4. In the Paragraph box click little arrow at bottom left.
    5. The Paragraph window opens on the Indents and Spacing tab.
    6. Go down to spacing Spacing and tick the box "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style"
    7. Just above that, find the Afterline
      1. 1st box-enter 0 (zero)
      2. 2nd box-choose At least
      3. 3rd box ("At")-choose smallest point size you've used (probably 12 pt)
    8. Click OK.

    You may need to go back to table properties and fiddle with those settings and by now it's likely time to freshen up your drink!!!! 

    Good luck.

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  3. 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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  4. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-13T22:57:14+00:00

    You can resize individual columns by dragging their borders, if that helps.

    If I remember correctly, dragging the bottom right corner of a table to resize all columns at once has been dropped (I don't remember which version was the last to support it).

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-12T13:28:42+00:00

    I experience a similar problem in my version of word 2016 (word365)

    A new table cannot be dragged to the desired width, however I can still set the width to desired values by typing the numbers.

    Additionally I found that when I display paragraph and layout markers, I can actually drag the edges of the table to the desired position.

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