Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Expanding Width of All Tables.

Expanding Width of All Tables

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 26, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you have a document that contains quite a few tables, you may be searching for a way to modify the width of all the tables in the document. For instance, your company standards may require that all tables be the same width, extending from the left to the right margin. If you have forty or more tables in a document, modifying the width of them all, individually, can be very tedious.

The following macro, ResizeAllTables, will quickly do what it says—resize all tables. The widths of the tables are adjusted to fill the available margins.

Sub ResizeAllTables()
    Dim oTbl As Table
    For Each oTbl In ActiveDocument.Tables
        oTbl.AutoFitBehavior wdAutoFitFixed
        With ActiveDocument.PageSetup
            oTbl.PreferredWidth = .PageWidth - .LeftMargin - .RightMargin
        End With
    Next oTbl
End Sub

After the macro is complete, you should still examine each table to make sure that your column widths are appropriate for your data, but the overall width of the tables will be as you expected.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1382) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Expanding Width of All Tables.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Displaying Document Comments

Adding comments to a document is a normal activity when writing and editing. Once comments have been added, you may ...

Discover More

Changing Your System Date and Time

Need to change the date and time maintained by Windows? It's easy to do using the steps in this tip.

Discover More

Out of Memory Errors when Accessing the VBA Editor

It can be frustrating when you get error messages doing something that you previously did with no errors. If you get an ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Deleting a Table

Tired of that old table taking up space in your document? You can get rid of it using a variety of techniques—some ...

Discover More

Indenting a Table

Insert a table into your document, and it normally appears aligned with the left margin. Word allows you to indent the ...

Discover More

Quick Recall of Table Formats

Got a table that you use over and over again? One way you can make quick work of such repetition is to save the table in ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 5 - 3?

2025-02-02 23:31:16

Andre

I get a "Run-time error '5148': The number must be between 0 and 1584." When I press Debug, it takes me to line 6 "oTbl.PreferredWidth = .PageWidth - .LeftMargin - .RightMargin" where if I mouse over each it says "oTbl.PreferredWidth = 9999999", ".PageWidth = 612", ".LeftMargin = 9999999", and ".RightMargin = 9999999". Any idea how to correct this?

2021-03-15 13:38:40

Charles Ward

Is there a way to set all tables to 7.13?

2020-08-24 03:39:07

Hi great tip thanks, but if i wanted all tables to fit to a certain width, how can i incorporate this into the above macros?

2020-08-18 13:47:46

Lee

Just what I needed! Thanks.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.