I have a printed form of Architect's Instructions to be filled in using Word
2003. I have set up the sheet as a two column table and got all the spacing
correct. I would now like to fix the table heights so that whatever is typed
in, the sheet won't 'slip'.

Is there a way of showing what the row heights are at present? When I press
Table | Properties | Row height, nothing is revealed as to what I have used
(unlike if I use Format | Para, I can see how it is set up at present). I
have tried looking at the vertical ruler, but that seems to be very
imprecise.

I want to set up the row height "Exactly".

Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA

I share your pain. I have often wished for this functionality not only for
table row heights but also for paragraph line spacing. It would be much
easier to set an Exact amount if one knew what the current "auto" setting
was. Unfortunately, this is not possible in current versions of Word; you'll
just have to go at it by trial and error.

There is, however, a way to estimate what the current height might be:

1. Single paragraph spacing for any font includes a certain amount of
"leading" (extra space between the baseline of one text line and the next).
For Times New Roman, this usually amounts to about 20% of the nominal font
size, so that, for example, a line of 10-pt TNR actually requires 12 points
of space. I suspect that it is no coincidence that this resulted in line
spacing of 6 lines per inch (typical "typewriter" spacing) in earlier
versions of Word in which 10-pt TNR was the default Normal font. The amount
of leading varies somewhat from font to font and, AFAIK, can be determined
only by measurement or trial and error, but that gives you something to
start with.

2. If your default cell margins do not include any Top or Bottom cell
padding and no Space Before/After has been added to the paragraphs in a
cell, then you can roughly estimate the current cell height as 120% of the
nominal point size times the number of lines in the cell.

You can also try printing out the current table (with grid borders applied)
and measuring the cell height in inches or points.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"oe" wrote in message
...
I have a printed form of Architect's Instructions to be filled in using
Word
2003. I have set up the sheet as a two column table and got all the
spacing
correct. I would now like to fix the table heights so that whatever is
typed
in, the sheet won't 'slip'.

Is there a way of showing what the row heights are at present? When I
press
Table | Properties | Row height, nothing is revealed as to what I have
used
(unlike if I use Format | Para, I can see how it is set up at present). I
have tried looking at the vertical ruler, but that seems to be very
imprecise.

I want to set up the row height "Exactly".

Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA

Thanks, Suzanne, that gives me a few ideas.

One thing I have just tried: I scanned the form with OCR software and saved
as a Word document. Although the OCR didn't give me a really accurate copy
of every word, at least it gave me some idea of the layout, etc. I put a few
text boxes in the document, grouped them and copied these to a blank
document. At least it gave me something to work on!


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I share your pain. I have often wished for this functionality not only for
table row heights but also for paragraph line spacing. It would be much
easier to set an Exact amount if one knew what the current "auto" setting
was. Unfortunately, this is not possible in current versions of Word;
you'll
just have to go at it by trial and error.

There is, however, a way to estimate what the current height might be:

1. Single paragraph spacing for any font includes a certain amount of
"leading" (extra space between the baseline of one text line and the
next).
For Times New Roman, this usually amounts to about 20% of the nominal font
size, so that, for example, a line of 10-pt TNR actually requires 12
points
of space. I suspect that it is no coincidence that this resulted in line
spacing of 6 lines per inch (typical "typewriter" spacing) in earlier
versions of Word in which 10-pt TNR was the default Normal font. The
amount
of leading varies somewhat from font to font and, AFAIK, can be determined
only by measurement or trial and error, but that gives you something to
start with.

2. If your default cell margins do not include any Top or Bottom cell
padding and no Space Before/After has been added to the paragraphs in a
cell, then you can roughly estimate the current cell height as 120% of the
nominal point size times the number of lines in the cell.

You can also try printing out the current table (with grid borders
applied)
and measuring the cell height in inches or points.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"oe" wrote in message
...
I have a printed form of Architect's Instructions to be filled in using
Word
2003. I have set up the sheet as a two column table and got all the
spacing
correct. I would now like to fix the table heights so that whatever is
typed
in, the sheet won't 'slip'.

Is there a way of showing what the row heights are at present? When I
press
Table | Properties | Row height, nothing is revealed as to what I have
used
(unlike if I use Format | Para, I can see how it is set up at present). I
have tried looking at the vertical ruler, but that seems to be very
imprecise.

I want to set up the row height "Exactly".

Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA

Forgot to say, I am using Stylus BT (the normal font for my office).

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I share your pain. I have often wished for this functionality not only for
table row heights but also for paragraph line spacing. It would be much
easier to set an Exact amount if one knew what the current "auto" setting
was. Unfortunately, this is not possible in current versions of Word;
you'll
just have to go at it by trial and error.

There is, however, a way to estimate what the current height might be:

1. Single paragraph spacing for any font includes a certain amount of
"leading" (extra space between the baseline of one text line and the
next).
For Times New Roman, this usually amounts to about 20% of the nominal font
size, so that, for example, a line of 10-pt TNR actually requires 12
points
of space. I suspect that it is no coincidence that this resulted in line
spacing of 6 lines per inch (typical "typewriter" spacing) in earlier
versions of Word in which 10-pt TNR was the default Normal font. The
amount
of leading varies somewhat from font to font and, AFAIK, can be determined
only by measurement or trial and error, but that gives you something to
start with.

2. If your default cell margins do not include any Top or Bottom cell
padding and no Space Before/After has been added to the paragraphs in a
cell, then you can roughly estimate the current cell height as 120% of the
nominal point size times the number of lines in the cell.

You can also try printing out the current table (with grid borders
applied)
and measuring the cell height in inches or points.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"oe" wrote in message
...
I have a printed form of Architect's Instructions to be filled in using
Word
2003. I have set up the sheet as a two column table and got all the
spacing
correct. I would now like to fix the table heights so that whatever is
typed
in, the sheet won't 'slip'.

Is there a way of showing what the row heights are at present? When I
press
Table | Properties | Row height, nothing is revealed as to what I have
used
(unlike if I use Format | Para, I can see how it is set up at present). I
have tried looking at the vertical ruler, but that seems to be very
imprecise.

I want to set up the row height "Exactly".

Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA