Microsoft Word Table Goes Off Page – How to Fix 

Quick Tips

• Microsoft Word tables can be as finicky as images when it comes to placement.
• If your table has gone off-page, you can try adjusting it manually.
• You can also use Word’s tools to fit the table to the page and keep it fixed or prevent it from splitting.

Microsoft Word doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to moving images around on a document. A small shift can set the whole document into chaos. But things don’t stop there; the same formatting problems can extend to other inserted objects like tables, too. If you’re struggling with this, we’re here to show you what to do when a Microsoft Word Table goes off page.

Microsoft Word Table Goes Off Page – Fixes to Try

There are a few ways to wrangle a stray table in Word back under control. Depending on how yours is misbehaving, some of the fixes below might be more appropriate than others.

The Manual Approach

Let’s start simple. If your table goes off page in Microsoft Word, you can always try the straightforward, but possibly time-consuming approach of manually resizing the table:

Step 1. Depending on the size and orientation of your table, hover your mouse over row and column borders and click and drag to resize them.

Step 2. Alternatively, you can try to go with the flow and change the page orientation. Simply click on the “Layout” tab and choose “Portrait” or “Landscape” depending on your needs.

If the table has gone too far offscreen to be adjusted back onto the page, you can enter the Draft View to edit things.

Step 1. Click the “View” tab, then “Draft” to change the view.

Step 2. Your whole table should now be visible on screen, allowing you to resize the rows and columns manually.

AutoFit Your Table

Microsoft Word, even if it muddies up inserted objects at times, still has very powerful tools to get things back under control. AutoFit is one such tool. Here’s how to use it:

Step 1. Click on your table to select it, then choose the “Table Layout” tab.

Step 2. Select the “AutoFit” option and select “AutoFit Contents.”

Step 3. The table should now fit neatly within the page and its margins.

Preventing a Table From Splitting

In some cases, “going off the page” might mean that your Word table is split across pages. Preventing this is quite simple. Here’s what to do:

Step 1. Select the table by the top-left corner icon (four arrows).

Step 2. Under the “Home” tab, click the “Paragraph” settings icon (the arrow at the bottom-right of the paragraph subsection).

Step 3. In the “Line and Page Breaks” tab, ensure the “Keep with next” option is checked and click “OK.”

Step 4. If the issue still isn’t resolved, right-click the top-left icon of the table and select “Table Properties” from the dropdown menu.

Step 5. In the window that pops up, ensure that “Text Wrapping” is set to “None” and click “OK.”

Keep Your Table Fixed

Finally, if you want your table to stay in place, no matter the text around it, you can set it to a fixed position, much like the “Tight” layout option for pictures in Word. Here’s what to do:

Step 1. Right-click on the icon at the top-left corner of the table and select “Table Properties.”

Step 2. Under “Text Wrapping,” select “Around.” After that, click the “Positioning” button.

Step 3. Uncheck “Move with text” in the next window and click “OK” to confirm.

Step 4. The table should now stay fixed on the page wherever you move it.