Restricting table cell resizing in Word

07
2014-07
  • Mihai Todor

    Is it possible to restrict users from resizing the cells of a table in protected documents in MS Word 2010? I want to restrict them from making any changes to the layout of the table (or, at least, to restrict them from changing the width of columns).

    I have tried playing with the settings from the restrictions menu, but to no avail...

    • Answers
  • Mihai Todor

    I ended up following this tutorial and it worked out. Basically, by default it completely locks the table and you can select the fields which can be edited. I don't know how to do advanced stuff, like locking only a part of the table, but, at this moment, I do not need this functionality.


    • Related Question

    copy paste - Pasting into multiple table cells in MS Word 2007
  • ultrasawblade

    The situation: I have the text "123-456" in the clipboard, cut from typing earlier in Word. I then create a 4x4 table, select all cells within that table, and then select Paste.

    The end result I'm trying to get is the text "123-456" in all 16 cells. Instead, MS Word is treating the dash as some sort of break, and I get "123" in the first column of 4 cells, "456" in the second column, "123" in the third column, and "456" again in the fourth column:

    123 456 123 456
123 456 123 456
123 456 123 456
123 456 123 456

    instead of

    123-456 123-456 123-456 123-456 
123-456 123-456 123-456 123-456 
123-456 123-456 123-456 123-456 
123-456 123-456 123-456 123-456

    Does any one know what setting controls this, or if it's even possible to turn off? I've experimented with most of the settings in Word Options and such to no avail, and I've googled everything I could think that would produce an answer.


    • Related Answers
  • Troggy

    You want to make sure to use a non breaking hyphen (Ctrl+Shift+_) between the 123-456. Then when you copy paste, it will do what you would like.

    You can find this in the special character section under the "Insert" tab, under Symbols and click "More Symbols". Then go to the the "Special Characters" tab and the 3rd option down will mention the non breaking hyphen. You can also setup auto-correction and symbols in here to change what actions you prefer.

    Once I changed to non breaking hyphens, I was able to copy paste in the format you desired. I got a hint from this article.