Can you figure this out?

[jim]

I was trying to create a simple form with Word 2007. I placed several
tables on a page and then proceeded to delete a row from the top table.

Oddly enough, this caused another table to jump to the top portion of the
page and it would not be placed back into position. It's the strangest
(stupidest) thing I have ever seen in Word.

It's really hard to explain well without showing it to you, so please take a
look at the video of my problem at http://www.mediafire.com/?bx1svd4zzjp and
let me know if you have a solution to this. (The video file is WMV and
about 2.5 Mb.)

Thanks!

jim

 

[Jan Groshan]

I don't have a clue why about your problem, but your video is impressive !

 

[Beth Melton]

I can't see your paragraph/formatting marks but I suspect the underlying
issue is due to where your floating tables are anchored. Since your document
doesn't appear to need to use floating tables I suspect once you set them to
inline the issue will be resolved. In the Table Properties (on the Layout
tab of the contextual Table Tools) try setting the Text wrapping to None.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton

What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

 

[jim]

I right clicked on each table and removed text wrapping from the cell
attributes (the only place that I saw it), but the problem continues.

I don't think I put it in the video, but the tables also snap to the edges
of the page when you get within some arbitrary distance, and I cannot find
any settings to stop that behavior either.

Honestly, if I could find some really good form creation software I'd get it
and never, ever try this again with Word.

jim

 

[jim]

Thanks. It's Camtasia Studio. It makes making videos easy. You should
check it out.

There are free alternatives like Windows Media Encoder at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
and ScreenCoder at http://www.merage.uci.edu/~dvdotnet/screencoder.html amd
CamStudio which is open sourced and free at http://camstudio.org/.

I haven't tried the alternatives myself, but CamStudio looks pretty good.

jim

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, no, you *want* the text to wrap in the cells! On the Table tab of Table
Properties, you want to change "Text wrapping" from Around to None.

 

[jim]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that made a worse mess than before. Before
it was just one table freaking out on me. Now ALL of the tables keep
snapping to each other and overlapping each other.

What a piece of sh!t. (Word 2007 that is....)

When you can't insert tables and drag and drop them anywhere you need to on
a page, how can you call that a decent document editing application?

How hard can that be (dragging and dropping tables, or other objects,
anywhere you want them - within the confines of the printable region on the
page)?

Microsoft has tried so damned hard to make Word (and their other tools) do
everything for you that they just plain get in the way of everyday form
creation. How sad is that?

jim

 

[jim]

I recreated the entire thing and it seems to be working fine.

I avoided dragging and dropping any tables anywhere.

Too busy to fight with or help fix Microsoft software.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

jim

 

[reitanospa1]

It looks like you have tables in tables and have used wrapping to
force them into order. Deleting one would then force the others to
move into the wrapping scheme. Just a guess.

Could you post or email the document? I'd like to play around with
it.

 

[jim]

I deleted the original problematic file, but I was able to recreate a
document with some of the same strange behavior and you can download it from
http://www.mediafire.com/?0zmf4jfn9ff

The fix was offered up by Stefan Blom.

Stephan wrote, "For each table, try this: Right-click the table, and choose
Table Properties from the context menu. In the Table Properties dialog box,
click the Table tab. Click Positioning. Clear "Move with text" and "Allow
overlap" and click OK. Click OK to close the Table Properties dialog.

Now you should be able to drag the tables as you wish.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP"

And it works. Alas, there is no way to set this as the default behavior for
easier form creation.

jim