Unexpected Loss of Border Formatting in Pasted Table

• Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, when a table is pasted directly to the right of a table, the pasted table loses its border formatting. Normally, Word preserves the border formatting of a pasted table, so this result may be unexpected. For example, suppose you had two separate bordered tables in your document as follows:

   -----------------------
   |Red       |Blue      |
   |---------------------|
   |Yellow    |Green     |
   -----------------------

   -----------------------
   |Apple     |Pear      |
   |---------------------|
   |Banana    |Grape     |
   -----------------------

Note: To paste the second table to the right of the first table, first position the cursor to the right of the first table's border, but to the left of the end-of-cell mark. Positioning the cursor at the top row results in an even four-cell-by-four-cell table. Positioning the cursor to the right of the bottom row results in an uneven table.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs by design because of the way Word keeps track of table borders. Word stores the border information with the table in such a way that Word cannot preserve the information when the table is pasted to the right of another table.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on working with table borders in Word, see pages 372-373 in the "Reference to Microsoft Word" version 4.0 manual or see pages 367-369 in the "Microsoft Word User's Guide" version 5.0 manual.