Blank spaces between rows

[Hélène]

Good day,

Please help me! Someone sent me this problem: it is a document containing
several rows with blank, totally blank spaces between each row (no paragrahp
marks, etc.). When I go to Table, Select Table, it selects all the rows, as
if they were part of the same table. Yet, I don't how to make them "stick
together", i.e. get rid of all blank spaces. Using XP, Word 2003.

Could it have been structured as a Web document? When I "reveal
formatting", nothing indicates that it was structured as a Web document.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Some things to check:

1. Does the text have any Space After and/or Space Before? Look in
Format>Paragraph, Indents and Spacing tab. If it does, change the
values to 0.

2. Is line spacing set to something other than Single? Again, this is
found on the Indents and Spacing tab of the Format>Paragraph dialog
box.

3. Are the table rows formatted with a minimum or exact height? Look
in Table>Table Properties>Row tab. Is "Specify height" selected and
"Row height is" set to Exactly or At least? Clear the check mark next
to "Specify height", or decrease the value (depending on what you
want).

4. Choose File>Page Setup. Click the Layout tab. Make sure that
Vertical alignment is set to "Top".

 

[Hélène]

Stefan,

Thank you for replying so quickly. I have checked every item on your
checklist and everything is normal. No special parameters or anything...

Do you have any other suggestions?

Hélène

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My best guess on this: the intervening spaces *are* table rows. The text has
been formatted as Font Color: White, so that even if you display nonprinting
characters, you will see nothing. Possible white borders have been applied
as well so that you don't see table gridlines or text boundaries. If you can
place the insertion point in the space between rows, then there is "text"
there (an empty paragraph at least). If you *can* place the IP there, try
looking at Reveal Formatting.

 

[Hélène]

Suzanne,

Thank you for the reply. That's what I tried too and, no can do; the space
between each row is inaccessible. If I "view" the document in "Web Layout",
then the rows are all attached together. But even then I cannot do a thing
to change the format. What's wrong with this document? Could it have been
created as an html document in the first place?

Hélène

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Possibly the tables are nested within another table? Perhaps the white
spaces are part of a cell border that includes white space?

 

[Hélène]

Suzanne,

Again thank you for your help. I looked at everything single thing and
there is no way we can change that table. It was either copied from the Net
or created in WordPerfect.

Hélène

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Sometimes the better part of valor is just to give up and convert the table
to text and back again (if that works) or create a new table and laboriously
copy/paste the contents into it. It would, of course, be more satisfying to
get to the bottom of the mystery.

If you'd like to send me a small sample of the problem table, I'll be happy
to look at it. Send it to sbarnhill (at) mvps (dot) org.

 

[Hélène]

Suzanne,

I just sent it to you. Thank you!

Sometimes the better part of valor is just to give up and convert the table
to text and back again (if that works) or create a new table and laboriously
copy/paste the contents into it. It would, of course, be more satisfying to
get to the bottom of the mystery.

If you'd like to send me a small sample of the problem table, I'll be happy
to look at it. Send it to sbarnhill (at) mvps (dot) org.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To report back to the group, it turned out that the spaces between the rows
must be some sort of graphic (or at least something in the drawing layer).
They show up only in Print Layout view or Print Preview, and clearing the
check boxes for "Drawings" on the View tab of Tools | Options and for
"Drawing objects" on the Print tab make them disappear from those view as
well. The second of each pair of rows contained a { PRIVATE
"TYPE=PICT;ALT=" } field that was apparently generating these graphics,
judging from the fact that deleting these fields made the mysterious space
disappear.