(Archived) Typing a character in table expands column width

[RobLewis 26]

Just sent a support request for this, but thought I'd see if others are having the problem:

EN 1.11.0

Create a new note.

Click in text area.

Define an empty table of 18 rows and 6 columns, 100% of page width.

Now type a character in any cell. That column's width expands greatly. Type another character and it expands some more. And so on. Erase the characters and the column goes back to normal.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[engberg 89]

The table within the note is HTML, which will normally balance out the width of each column based on the contents. So if you have a bunch of empty columns and one with a bunch of text, that will become bigger to fit more without wrapping. If you add something to all of the cells, it should naturally balance to something reasonable, but completely empty columns may be tiny until you put something into them.

[RobLewis 26]

Actually, the columns look fine when they're empty. They are evenly spread across the width of the page. But typing a single character in any cell instantly causes that column to more than double in width. Another character, and the column widens another big amount. It's kind of crazy IMO.

See attached screenshots. The only difference between the two is that I typed "x" in one cell.

[engberg 89]

Right, but what happens if you type one character in EVERY row in that table? I believe they will balance back out. (This is generally how tables will display in an HTML web browser.)

I guess the assumption is that you don't plan to have a lot of columns with absolutely no contents across every row.

[RobLewis 26]

If that's how HTML has to work, then IMO you should do something different. This is bogus!

Contrast it with how tables work in MS Word, or virtually any other app AFAIK. Why on earth should tables have self-adjusting boundaries? Sort of defeats their whole purpose if you ask me, which is to store and display information in an orderly fashion. The requirement that every cell be populated to have the intended format is just silly.

[engberg 89]

Why are you creating a table with 6 columns, and then never putting any data in 5 of those columns?

I'm trying to determine whether this is just a minor aesthetic issue when you type in the first cell in the table, or if you really have a use case that requires a lot of empty columns in your note that you don't intend to populate with any data.

[RobLewis 26]

My data has a fair number of missing values. When I first observed this behavior it stopped me cold so I haven't tried to enter the actual data, but based on the experiments I've done, I'm not anticipating a happy ending.