Change width of the table columns

[obsidian.68c3s]

It would be wonderful if you could adjust the width of the table columns.

If enabling users to modify it at their discretion proves challenging, consider implementing preset sizes such as Narrow, Medium, or Wide as default options.

[blue_emperor]

Related:

Tables: Adjust/Resize Column Width

Use case or problem The tables cannot autosize in Live Preview and there is no way to adjust the width/height of the table like you can in Excel. When in live preview add a drag bar that updates the value too. Proposed solution Add a syntax that lets you adjust height or width to autosize or manual. Could be something like: | {W:auto;H:15pt} Rest of cell text or another annotation or formula. |

https://forum.obsidian.md/t/ability-to-resize-columns-in-tables/1553/4

My comment: as mentioned, you already have ability to control how tables are rendered by writing html code inside your note. But it could be useful to have separate Obsidian feature for this as well. The problem is that Obsidian should automatically convert markdown tables to html resulting unexpected changes to markdown documents. It’s not Obsidian’s duty to decide how well markdown is supported, their duty is to support markdown as documented officially in GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec. This means that native feature to change table column widths is impossible.

[obsidian.68c3s]

Thank you for your response, but I am not a programmer. I use Obsidian to take notes on my patients at a clinic, so resorting to HTML code just to modify the tables complicates things. I would appreciate it if Obsidian were a bit more user-friendly for non-coders, unless the app is specifically designed for that milieu, and I have misunderstood its user base.

[blue_emperor]

Maybe you can tell more about your use case. Why adjusting column width is really important to you?

In general when you want to work with better document formatting, you can have Obsidian → Word workflow. Usually I tell that to people who want to print their notes physically or convert them as pdf-files. Unfortunately converting markdown documents to docx-documents requires expertise of using Pandoc command line software. In theory someone with right expertise in your facility could help you to set up the mentioned system.

As you may have already noted, Obsidian works extremely well for template-based reporting. Considering that I really hope you can find someone to help you convert your notes to Word documents. This way you can initiate your work in Obsidian and then occasionally make some small formatting edits in Word.