Text overflow in word table

I received a number of Word documents generated automatically from a third party database. Most (if not all) content is in tables. The problem is that in many cells the text is not entirely visible due to overflow. The column width and row height is set with absolute values. The column widths cannot be changed. If there is overflow, the row height should be changed to allow the text to run over more lines.

My question is: is it in any way possible to find the cells where this is the case and only for these rows set the Height to wdRowHeightAuto.

I tried just changing all rows to auto height, but this really messes up the layout.

I am now considering the following approach, but I really wonder if there is no easier way.

1. For each Cell, set Cell.FitText to true
2. Check if font scale has been changed
3. Set FitText back to false
4. If font scale was changed by FitText, set row height to Auto

Any help VBA or c# would be appreciated!

This is where I’m at, but I get runtime errors about accessing the individual column not being accessible due to different column widths. Indiviual rows are also not accessible as there are merged cells.

app = new Word.Application();

            foreach (var file in inputFiles)
            {
                var doc = app.Documents.Open(file);

                foreach (var table in doc.Tables)
                {
                    foreach (var column in table.Columns)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            foreach (var cell in column.Cells)
                            {
                                cell.FitText = true;

                                bool textIsScaled = false;

                                if (cell.Range.Font.Scaling != 100)
                                    textIsScaled = true;

                                cell.FitText = false;

                                if (textIsScaled)
                                    cell.HeightRule = WdRowHeightRule.wdRowHeightAuto;
                            }
                        }
                        catch (Exception)
                        {
                            continue;
                        }
                    }
                }

                doc.Save();

                doc.Close();

            }

Error Word overflow table can be corrected in 2 different ways and very simple to perform, helping to bring the table in Word aligned correctly.

Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Fitting Text Into Cells.

You have worked long and hard on your page design, including a couple of tables that are just right. Then, along comes a need to add a bit more text into one of the tables. The result is that the text in a cell wraps and pushes everything else down a bit. Now your whole design is thrown off. You long for a way to automatically adjust the size of the text in a cell so you won’t have the wrapping and pushing occur.

Word provides a built-in option that may do the trick. Simply follow these steps:

1. Select the cell or cells that you want to format.
2. Make sure the Layout tab of the ribbon is displayed. (This tab is only visible if you first do step 1.)
3. Click the Properties tool in the Table group. Word displays the Table Properties dialog box.
4. Select the Cell tab. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Cell tab of the Table Properties dialog box.

5. Click on the Options button. Word displays the Cell Options dialog box. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Cell Options dialog box.

6. Make sure the Fit Text check box is selected.
7. Click on OK to close the Cell Options dialog box.
8. Click on OK to close the Table Properties dialog box.

What Word does is to decrease the apparent size of the text so that everything fits. Word decreases the width of the text by «scrunching» (a highly technical term) the text together horizontally, without adjusting it vertically.

Author Bio

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…