How do I increase the width of a table in OneNote Online?

Question

I have a table in the OneNote app in Office365. I want to increase the overall width of the table, and I also want to add columns to it.

However, whenever I try to drag the right side of the table, the overall table width remains the same while the last column is made wider by stealing width from other columns.

The same thing happens when I try to add a column; the overall width remains unchanged and the new column steals width from the existing columns.

I've also tried selecting the entire table by right-clicking on it to bring up the toolbar, then clicking Select->Select table. Unfortunately, when I try dragging the rightmost edge of the table, it again just makes the last column wider and shrinks the other columns.

How can I widen a table in OneNote Online?

Answer 1

After tinkering around for a while, I discovered that the table width is fixed to the size of the parent container, which is normally not selectable for some reason when you create a new table directly on a page.

The mouse cursor is not visible in the above screenshot, but I am hovering over the table. By default, hovering over the table does not allow you to locate and grab a handle that resizes the overall table's width.

I found 2 solutions:

Edit the note in the desktop OneNote application. You will be able to see that the table is in a parent container, which you can resize as needed. Interestingly, once the edits sync back to Office365, OneNote Online will now render the parent container when you hover over the table, so you can now resize it in the webapp, as well.

In the OneNote webapp, double-click in an empty region of the page, then hover over the table. This will make the parent container visible, so you can move your mouse to the edge and adjust the parent container's width (and, consequentially, the table's). It seems by default, the table's width is only adjustable when a different content area has focus.

Answer 2

I'll add some additional information here to rob's valid answer above.

One thing to note is that the width of the parent container in OneNote isn't always what it appears to be. If you paste an image into the parent contain which is wider than the container itself, the container appears to expand to the width of the image. This is not so.

Instead, you have to go up to the top of the parent container, select it by clicking, then left-click-drag the right border of the parent container to widen it to set its actual width. If you don't do this, your tables will not resize to match the right border of your parent container!

Answer 3

While in the table, right click and select Table from the menu. There are a number of choices on this sub-menu, including inserting and deleting rows and columns, shading and sorting. But there is no choice for cell width or column width.

Answer 4

I solved it.

Literally after reading this, I thought well that's stupid and gave up effort trying to resize a column. I went to copy text by clicking immediately before the first letter of the first word on the first letter of the first word in the second column and dragging with the intention of highlighting the text to copy and paste. It grabbed and widened the 1st column. Don't try to grab the border between columns, its that tiny space between the column border and the first letter that seems to be the trick. ONLY after you start dragging the column does the cursor turn into the grab handle icon.

I tested the theory in Microsoft Edge and Brave (Chrome based browser) and worked in both.

Answer 5

With the desktop onenote, this can be done by installing the onetastic, then install the "set column widths" Macros.