how to fix the column width in confluence tables

[Luke Chapman]

Hi There,

I have 7 tables on a page that need to be separated because they are each important checklists with different purposes.  However, it reads poorly visually BECAUSE the tables each have 3 columns but the columns vary in width among the tables.  https://womply.atlassian.net/wiki/display/BD/MCPS+-+TSR+Spec+-+CHECKLIST

Is there a way to select the width of the columns in the tables?

Thanks so much.

Luke Chapman - lchapman@womply.com

[Rob Woodgate]

Hi Luke,

I don't know why the other answers are telling you to use a macro or code something, but this is entirely possible in Confluence.

In the table toolbar there is a dropdown on the left hand side that says Responsive".  If you click it, you can change it to Fixed width.  This means that the columns in your table will display with the width you've chosen, no matter what the screen resolution or platform.  If you leave it as Responsive, the table will be rendered with whatever column widths the browser thinks are right.

You can change the width of columns by selecting a column line and moving it left or right.

[Christine Diamond]

Hi Rob, I don't see "Responsive." I am on v 5.7.1.

What version are you using?

[Rob Woodgate]

Hi Christine,

I'm using the Cloud version, but this functionality has been added to the Server version (see here for the 6.4 docs on tables).

When this was added to Server I don't know, but after 5.7, certainly, as that's quite an old version.....

[Joy_Mather]

The feature is in v 6.3. it is still a bit ugly.

[Kimi]

Hi @Rob Woodgate 

There is no Fixed width option to select in the new Page style format. 

I am using Confluence Cloud and use the table heavily instead of Excel. Why in the world Confluence team just removed this feature from us. Or maybe I don't know how to use the new page format?

If there is no way to add Fixed width for Table or Page, then it would be great if someone can tell me where to create a ticket to request for this feature back.

Thanks in advance.

[Rob Woodgate]

Hi Kimi,

Yeah, there's lots of useful things missing now. Just another user-unfriendly update as normal with Atlassian 😂

Anyway, the way to use the old formatting, at least until they remove the option, is to copy a page that was created BEFORE the new changes. That will use the old formatting, including having the Fixed Width option for tables.

Hope that helps you.

[Kimi]

Thank you for your tips Rob.

Ill will try to do as you informed, cross fingers and hope Atlassian will give us back the freedom to design our page layout our-self with Fixed Width 

Cheers

[Laura Bier]

do either of you have a link to an enhancement request for this? including it in a post like this might help it get some extra votes! I agreed.  It's ridiculous to not be able to have fixed width table columns. 

[Kimi]

Not sure if there is a ticket for it so we can vote, maybe @Luke Chapman  knows it, cos he was the one who created this thread

[Joey Gibbs]

Thanks for all the context everybody <3

Why is it that every time I come to these forums I leave a little angrier at Atlassian?

[a_edel]

Wow, after having used Confluence tables for quite a while, I never even noticed that "Responsive" drop-down option in the toolbar next to all of the formatting tools I use all the time.  Thanks for pointing it out!

[Ben Marsh]

Maybe this is the ticket you're looking for: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-67831?_ga=2.224358493.715660651.1594558778-1117226069.1556711817&error=consent_required&error_description=Consent+required&state=d93ef4ab-dc3f-464c-b09b-621a0f59b786

[Laura Bier]

Thanks Ben.  Voted and following.  

[Curt Jackson]

I don't have an answer for anyone coming here looking to set fixed width values, but if like me you're looking to equalise column widths I figured it out (maybe this is common knowledge, idk)...

Column widths can be matched by selecting multiple columns (i.e. selecting two adjacent cells across two columns) then adjust the widths by dragging a column dividing line - when the mouse button is released the columns snap to an equal width.

[Cecilia Mattsson]

@Curt Jackson THANK YOU!! that really helped me!! 

[Meredith Pratt]

It's so annoying to have that feature removed. Who would make such a decision?

[Mick Davidson]

I've found an easy way of doing this, for Server 5.7.3. 

All you have to do is:

Add width="n" into the <th> tag at the beginning of the code.

For example:

<th width="100">Column Name</th>

In the code this looks like:

<table>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <th width="200">Field</th>
 <th>Description</th>
 </tr>

Do this for all columns or just the one you want to keep at a fixed width.

So for two columns you could have:

<table>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <th width="200">Field</th>

 <th width="500">Description</th>

 <th>Description</th>
 </tr>

I did this yesterday and it's still working today, so it must be right! 

Cheers.

[Jyo J]

where do we need to add this code?

[Benj]

You might want to vote for this issue: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-3393

It is outstanding for almost 10 years now. Hopefully Atlassian will get around to it sooner than later.

[Kimi]

Thanks Benj, the ticket is now closed https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-3393

[PaulM]

Hi Luke,

In my limited experience of using Confluence I've observed that if the table is rendered in full screen width, either purposely or inadvertently, that I've been unable to resize existing column widths. This can be very annoying for readability, especially where columns ram full of text become rendered with narrow widths. This and similar observations are described by a bug/issue reference number 67831.

In my experience, the workaround has been to insert an additional table column, subsequently to manually copy the contents of one of the existing columns into the new column, and finally to delete the original column if desired. Though somewhat laborious, this has the effect of then making it possible to resize any of the columns.

It worked for me anyway, hope this tip is of some benefit to you and other Confluence users

Best Regards

Paul

[vaibhav_raverkar]

I was facing a similar issue.

Here is what I tried, make sure the first row of the table is not merged. Post that tries to resize the width and see if that works.

[vaibhav.kamble]

<th style="width="20%!importent;">Column Name</th>

[TomC]

Hey David, I added 'Confluence' to the title (on behalf of Luke). Hopefully that'll help in future Google searches.

[Dave S_]

Please add the word "confluence" to the title.

This description applies only to Confluence, but it's the top Google result when trying to find info on how to fix column widths in JIRA. 

[Dawn DiAnda]

Hey Luke,

I'm not sure if you have found a solution to your issue. One way to constraint the content in the table in to use the Column Macro in the cell, then embed your content in macro. You will be able constrain width of each column based on the value you input into the Column macro.

[TomC]

Hi Luke,

This currently isn't possible natively in Confluence, but is possible using the Table Plus Macro which is part of the Advanced Tables for Confluence plugin.  References to this:

1.) https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/TBL/Controlling+the+Width+of+Table+Columns

2.) https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/305897

I haven't used this particular macro yet so if you are able to use it and it works, please let us know.

Good luck!

[Peter Bengov]

Hi Luke, this is not Atlassian Support, so we can't access your system. You can contact them in support.atlassian.com. If you would like help from the community here - you can add a screenshot :)