How do I get rid of the extra space in tables with Microsoft Word 2003?

Question

I am copying and pasting tables from another document (Word 2007) over to Word 2003 and when I do this, right click on the upper left hand corner of the table, AutoFit, AutoFit to Contents, I am left with unknown spaces. These spaces are ones that cannot be deleted. They're like a paragraphing problem, but I don't know how to edit it. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

How to fix this: Select the table, then right-click -> Table Properties. On the Row tab, disable "specify height" and you are golden.

Answer 2

Yes, the problem is that you can't access paragraph settings within tables. I know a way around this (there may be others):

1. You copy the contents of one of the cells and paste in into the main body of the doc (outside of the table.)
2. Then you select the copied text, right-click on it and use the paragraph settings (not available from within the table) and set the paragraph spacing to zero.
3. Copy this "fixed" text back into the table.
4. Select the cell and use the "Format Painter" tool (Left corner of the home ribbon) to copy the corrected formatting to other cells

Works for me every time.

Answer 3

Highlight the table, select 'Line and Paragraph spacing' button and 'Remove space after paragraph'. Just worked for me!

Answer 4

I forgot where the settings are in 2003, but the settings you are looking for are the Cell margins, Cell alignment.

If they are a paragraph problem, just select one cell, and go under Format/Paragraph. Zero out the After Line( or Paragraph, I forgot). Then just use format painter.

Answer 5

If disabling "specify height" still doesn't work, try this:

(Based on Word 2003) Highlight the rows/columns of your interest and go to Format > Paragraph > Under the Spacing section, go to "Line Spacing" and choose either Single, 1.5, Double spacing or etc.