Table column width
Asked by Philip Colmer:

I've started using the meeting notes page template and was quite disappointed when the column width changed so that the left hand column now is too narrow and the text wraps over multiple lines.

It looks like this is the default behaviour and that there isn't any GUI to change this.

So my question is is there any open request to get this fixed that I can add my vote to?

Thanks.


Answers:
author: Bob Swift (personal)
body: Tables, including the meeting table, can be customized with width and other column attributes using the [Table-plus macro](https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TBL/Table-plus+macro) and specifying **Column attributes** with a style. For instance:

```
style=width:200px;,style=width:700px;background:yellow;
```

comments: author: Philip Colmer
body: Thanks, Bob. I've now added that.

(It would be nice if I could figure out how to edit the meeting notes template so that this macro was used by default :-) )


author: Jason Perr
body: I think its rediculous that oyu have to pay $5 month to have basic controls over width of a table. Is there truly no other way to do this?


author: David Skreiner
body: Apparently one can just create a user macro that sets all table columns on the page to the same width. Much smarter than buying yet another expensive plugin.

(See Fabian Meier's comment in this issue)

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-3393>


author: Mick Davidson
body: All I did was creat a table and add the titles and content. I deliberately varied the size of both to see how they'd change.

I've just checked and added a column with a two word title and initially only one word of text. This did shrink, and the column width was dictated by the number of words the column contained. However, as I added more words the column re-sized into something more acceptable.

You're correct about there being no controls to help with this - that'd be great!

One of the ways we've brough columns under control is using CSS. Is that something you can do?

Cheers.

comments: author: Philip Colmer
body: The way that Confluence handles tables and columns at the moment is ... interesting :-).

It looks like the system tries to balance cell width vs cell height, so if you've got a lot of content in a cell, the system makes the cell wider so that it doesn't get very tall.

So in the case of the meeting notes template where the first column is the time for the agenda item, it is only going to be something like "10 mins" which will always cause that to wrap onto two lines. My workaround has been to remove the space.

I don't know how to manipulate the CSS for the tables. Where can I find more information on this? I'd be a bit unhappy about having to do it on every new meeting notes page. It would be better if there was a way to specify things like relative widths, minimum widths, etc, which is why I was asking if there were any open Confluence issues related to table improvements that I could vote on.


author: Pamela Gran
body: The Confluence 5.5.6 Table Plus macro Column attributes does NOT work! Entering style=width:10px;,style=width:20px;,style=width:30px;style=width:40px;style=width:50px;style=width:60px;style=width:70px;style=width:80px; renders random column widths!!! What is the secret formula for customizing column widths? This column box did not allow me to paste a Snipping Tool capture of what Confluence rendered. Thank you!!!


author: Mick Davidson
body: Philip,

I've just tried this in 5.3.1 downlaod and it works fine. Is it something at your end, is that possible?

My columns did re-size but it's nothing dramtic, and its a lot better than what it was in 4.3. All columns are pretty even, though the long titles wrap. They do that quite sensibly though.

Cheers.

comments: author: Philip Colmer
body: Interesting ... how did you achieve the re-size? I cannot see any controls to click on, and putting the mouse pointer over the column lines doesn't display anything that suggests I can drag on them.

Thanks.