org: Column width and alignment
3.2 Column width and alignment
==============================
The width of columns is automatically determined by the table editor.
And also the alignment of a column is determined automatically from the
fraction of number-like versus non-number fields in the column.
Sometimes a single field or a few fields need to carry more text,
leading to inconveniently wide columns. Or maybe you want to make a
table with several columns having a fixed width, regardless of content.
To set(1) the width of a column, one field anywhere in the column may
contain just the string ‘<N>’ where ‘N’ is an integer specifying the
width of the column in characters. The next re-align will then set the
width of this column to this value.
|---+------------------------------| |---+--------|
| | | | | <6> |
| 1 | one | | 1 | one |
| 2 | two | ----\ | 2 | two |
| 3 | This is a long chunk of text | ----/ | 3 | This=> |
| 4 | four | | 4 | four |
|---+------------------------------| |---+--------|
Fields that are wider become clipped and end in the string ‘=>’. Note
that the full text is still in the buffer but is hidden. To see the
full text, hold the mouse over the field—a tool-tip window will show the
full content. To edit such a field, use the command ‘C-c `’ (that is
‘C-c’ followed by the grave accent). This will open a new window with
the full field. Edit it and finish with ‘C-c C-c’.
When visiting a file containing a table with narrowed columns, the
necessary character hiding has not yet happened, and the table needs to
be aligned before it looks nice. Setting the option
‘org-startup-align-all-tables’ will realign all tables in a file upon
visiting, but also slow down startup. You can also set this option on a
per-file basis with:
#+STARTUP: align
#+STARTUP: noalign
If you would like to overrule the automatic alignment of number-rich
columns to the right and of string-rich column to the left, you can use
‘<r>’, ‘<c>’(2) or ‘<l>’ in a similar fashion. You may also combine
alignment and field width like this: ‘<r10>’.
Lines which only contain these formatting cookies will be removed
automatically when exporting the document.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) This feature does not work on XEmacs.
(2) Centering does not work inside Emacs, but it does have an effect
when exporting to HTML.
Info Catalog
org: Built-in table editor
org: Tables
org: Column groups