Entry

Table: Column: Align: Why are my columns not aligned? [e-mail / proportional font]

Apr 1st, 2006 17:39
Knud van Eeden, Hayes Smith

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--- Knud van Eeden --- 02 April 2021 - 00:54 am ----------------------
Table: Column: Align: Why are my columns not aligned? [e-mail / 
proportional font]
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The reason for unequal spacing might be in some cases that some
characters have a smaller width than others, (e.g. the 'i' has a width
of 0.3 cm, and the 'v' has a width 0.4 cm) as is the case (by design,
because the text in the pages looks e.g. much smoother as you have a
better distribution of empty space between characters) in proportional
fonts.
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Putting a lot of this characters together, on different lines, gives
different lengths.
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E.g.
If you put on line 1 the characters 'i' + 'i' + 'v', it adds
to 0.3 + 0.3 + 0.4, totalling 1 cm width.
If you put on line 2 the characters 'i' + 'i' + 'i', it adds
to 0.3 + 0.3 + 0.3, totalling 0.9 cm width.
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If characters are supposed to be shown beneath each other,
like in a table, you will thus see that they are moved
to different positions horizontally, thus giving your
table a distorted look.
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A solution might be to choose a non-proportional font instead (like
'Courier New', or 'Terminal'), where all characters by design have
equal width (e.g. all characters have a width of 1 cm).
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Method: Highlight and change to non-proportional font
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Steps: Overview:
 1. -Highlight that part of that text (e.g. that table in your e-mail)
 2. -Select a non-proportional font (e.g. from the menu)
     1. -E.g.
          Courier New
 3. -Your table should look much better now probably
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Method: Copy / Paste to Microsoft Windows clipboard
 1. -Copy that part of that text (e.g. that table in your e-mail)
     to the Microsoft Windows clipboard
 2. -Paste it back
 3. -Your table should look much better now probably
 4. -This method might only sometimes work, in case the pasted text is
     by the software involved changed automatically to a
     non-proportional font.
     The other method should almost always work.
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Note:
In general you might thus use 2 different fonts in your text.
For example, a non-proportional font (like Courier New) for your
tables, combined with a proportional font (like Arial) for everything
else.
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Internet: see also:
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