Writer Guide

Selecting an alignment option other than Automatic activates the
Width field in the Properties section, where you can enter the desired
size of the table. Select Relative to see the width as percentage of the
text area.
In the Spacing section, use the Above and the Below boxes to modify
the separation between the text and the table. When the size of the
table is less than the size of the text area, OOo will insert some values
in the Left and Right boxes. You can only change both values if you
select Manual alignment and you can change the Left box value only
when you select the From Left alignment. Note that the sum of the
table width, and the values in the Left and Right boxes, needs to equal
the width of the text area.
Resizing rows and columns
You can adjust the height of rows and the width of columns in a table in
several ways.
• Move the mouse next to the edge of the cell and when a double-
headed arrow appears, click and hold the left mouse button, drag
the border to the desired position, and release the mouse button.
• On the horizontal ruler, column dividers are marked by a pair of
thin gray lines; the vertical ruler indicates row dividers in the
same way. You can resize a row or column by holding the mouse
button down on the appropriate divider and dragging it to the
desired location.
• Use the keyboard as described below.
Selecting Table > Autofit from the main menu also offers some
resizing options:
• The Optimal Column Width or Optimal Row Height options
make the columns or rows as narrow as possible while still fitting
their contents.
• Columns and rows can be distributed evenly to quickly bring them
back to all being the same width or height.
For greater control over the width of each column, use the Columns
page of the Table Format dialog box (see Figure 274).
304 OpenOffice.org 3 Writer Guide