Indent table, fill remaining width

Question

I have an existing table in Word that someone else created. The body text is indented 1.5" from the left. I want the table to line up with this, so I indent the table 1.5" from the left. That works fine. But then I want the table fill the *remaining* width of the page to the right -- and I cannot find a way to make Word do this automatically, without figuring out the exact width the table needs to be to fill that remaining space and then manually typing in that width. Setting the table width to 100% makes it 100% of the page width REGARDLESS of the indent, which makes the table run off the edge of the right margin (this is very poor behavior and will inevitably lead to printing problems for the unwitting user! Who wants a 100% width table that runs off the page??).

Answer 1

As you have found, 100% means 100% of the width between the margins (indentation is ignored). You will have to set a fixed width for the table. The good news is that you can easily see which width you need if you display the horizontal ruler.

Answer 2

Dimensions can't be saved to a table styles, unfortunately. What you can do, for future use, is create a Building Block that adds a table with the desired dimensions.

Answer 3

Thanks, Stefan -- it is as I feared, then. Any thoughts on how I might be able to more quickly apply these settings? Could they be saved as a style? I am frequently having to fix these and it gets tedious when I have to repeatedly open the Table Properties, check the box for Preferred Width, and then type in the numbers I want and then click OK... that's 3 clicks and 5 keystrokes -- I'd love for it to be one click!