MS Word —

Prevent Word from Resizing a Table

Word always tries to be helpful by adjusting the columns and rows of a table to fit the text inside them. However, this may not be what you want sometimes. You may need to have columns and table of a fixed size instead.

Use Insert Table dialog box

To prevent Word from resizing the columns, insert a table by using the Insert Table dialog box (see following Figure) rather than by using the predefined grid of cells and "painting" out a table grid.

To insert a table using "Insert Table" dialog box, you can use the following steps:


To prevent Word from resizing your table columns, select the "Fixed column width" option in the Insert Table dialog box.

  1. Click on the Insert tab on the ribbon.
  2. Click on the Table button in the Tables group.
  3. Choose Insert Table option.
  4. Specify the number of columns and rows.
  5. Select the Fixed column widths option and specify a width rather than Auto
  6. Click OK.

Turn off AutoFit

Turn off the Automatically resize to fit contents option if the table is already inserted in your document with AutoFit turned on:


You can also turn off AutoFit in an existing table.

  1. Right-click in the table, choose Table Properties.
  2. Click the Table tab if it's not already displayed.
  3. Click the Options button
  4. Uncheck the Automatically resize to fit contents box,
  5. Click the OK button to close each dialog box (see above Figure).

Use Table Properties dialog box

If the table is already inserted in your document, you can use the Table Properties dialog box to prevent a table from expanding by specifying the width of the table itself or its columns. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the table (or columns)
  2. Open Table Properties by:
    • Right-click in the table, choose Table Properties.
    • Or click the Layout tab and click the Properties button in the Table group.
  3. Click the Table tab, check the Preferred width box and specify a width for the entire table.
  4. OR, click the Column tab, check the Preferred width box and specify a width for the selected columns.
  5. Click OK.