Keeping the table columns the same width

Problem

You want to ensure that all columns in a table are the same width.

Solution

Use the Pixels option of the TABLE pound instruction.

Discussion

When questions and answers are presented in matrix format (with questions as rows and answers as columns, usually), it is visually pleasing that all answer columns be the same width. In the case of columns housing a scale (such as a satisfaction or an agreement scale), keeping columns all the same width reinforces the interval-scale nature of the set of responses.

The TABLE pound instruction possesses an option to specify the minimum number of pixels to be used by each column (other than the first, row label column). In the following example,

    # Table 1 = Q1-Q4 PIXELS=80

the "80" indicates that each column should use at least 80 pixels.

The Pixels value is the minimum column width. If one word in the header cell is larger than that value, the column accommodates that larger width. In order to ensure that the column uses exactly the number of pixels stated by the Pixels option, hyphenate long words by adding a hyphen followed by a <br> (line break).

Keeping the table columns the same width

Problem

You want to ensure that all columns in a table are the same width.

Solution

Use the Pixels option of the TABLE pound instruction.

Discussion

When questions and answers are presented in matrix format (with questions as rows and answers as columns, usually), it is visually pleasing that all answer columns be the same width. In the case of columns housing a scale (such as a satisfaction or an agreement scale), keeping columns all the same width reinforces the interval-scale nature of the set of responses.

The TABLE pound instruction possesses an option to specify the minimum number of pixels to be used by each column (other than the first, row label column). In the following example,

    # Table 1 = Q1-Q4 PIXELS=80

the "80" indicates that each column should use at least 80 pixels.

The Pixels value is the minimum column width. If one word in the header cell is larger than that value, the column accommodates that larger width. In order to ensure that the column uses exactly the number of pixels stated by the Pixels option, hyphenate long words by adding a hyphen followed by a <br> (line break).