Impress: cannot shrink height of some tables

English
#1

Currently using Impress version 7.3.7.2, but the problem has occurred with several previous releases.

For some (but not all) tables in my Impress slides, I cannot shrink the height of the cells to fit the text. Or more precisely, I can drag the bottom of the cell upwards to shrink the cell, but when I save and reload the cell has reverted to its previous height.

I think this mainly happens when there are merged cells in the table.
All cell padding is set to 0
It can happen to natively created tables, and also with tables imported from Calc.
On every slide there are well behaved and badly behaved tables, and I cannot see any different settings.
All cells are formatted with Carlito font, and it doesnt seem to matter if there are mixtures of font sizes in the cells.

I can’t think of any other info to add, but please let me know if I missed something.
Here is an example of a table embedded in a slide:
Impress Table shot

Trust me - I’ve looked for extra carriage returns in other cells, wierd non display characters etc etc, and there are none!

#2

The handling of tables in Draw or Impress is a little bit restricted.
.
For some purposes one could use Writer tables as OLE objects, but working on them needs some experience and good nerves… :wink:

1 Like
#3

Select the table to drag the lines.
Use the Optimize icon in the Table toolbar for multiple functions.
Use the sidebar to adjust indents and spacing.

93960 HB Table

#4

Thanks Hrbgr - I hadnt noticed the optimize icon. Unfortunately, when I use it on a table, doesnt shrink the cell to the text, in fact it actually increased the height of one cell!

Here is a more extreme example where I cannot even manually grab the bottom of the cell and shrink it:
Table 2

#5

Upload a sample file (1-2 pages max) here, with the problem you describe. Thank you.

And please specify your operating system.

#6

Ok Sample slide attached
Bridge notes 23.07.25- sample.odp (373.2 KB) shows the problem on several of the tables.


Also maybe some clues. I modified the second table above (Splinters) and split the first column. Now I can shrink the cell to the height I want. I saved the presentation and reloaded, and my modifications were intact.
I then moved the text “Majors only” to the new bottom left cell. The paragraph indentation settings were the same as before, namely 0 spacing before the text. Oddly enough the text “Majors only” was hard up against the left of the table. All other cells/paragraphs are supposed to be 0 before, but as you can see they are all 0.1cm indented. I updated the bottom left cell to 0.1cm and it now looks like all the others.

Does this indicate there are some overriding default settings somewhere? Something that is only visible when merging cells??

Anyway, operating system is Linux Mint 21.1 Vera ;
Table 3
kernel is at version 5.19.0-46-generic

And thanks in advance for your help!

#7

I don’t have the problem you describe above.

93960 HB Bridge notes 23.07.25- sample.odp (26,0 KB)

With me:

Version: 7.5.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: ca8fe7424262805f223b9a2334bc7181abbcbf5e
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: de-DE (de_DE); UI: de-DE
Calc: CL threaded

#8

Something wierd about my setup:

I open your file, and everything looks great - tables shrunk in height - perfect.

But when I click to select a table, suddenly all the tables jump and reverts to the bad old format with too much space at the bottom!

I can live without solving this problem, but its got me intrigued as to what is wrong with my config . . .

1 Like
#9

When I open the file everything is fine.

You may want to download and install an updated version.
Download LibreOffice | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Before that you can test if the user profile is ok.
LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki

#10

Looks like tdf#118332 with also tdf#142529 & tdf#145204

As a workaround you could create your tables in Writer, using paragraph styles and Character styles for consistency. Then Edit > Paste Special > Pate Special > LibreOffice 7.3 Text Text Document to add the table to Impress. This can get a bit fiddly adjusting size first time but after that you can edit the table by just double-clicking within Impress.
93960 HB Bridge notes 23.07.25- sampleEA.odp (39.5 KB)
Cheers, Al

1 Like
#11

Great thanks for that info. Good to know its a known bug, not a corrupt profile.

I pasted in a Writer table, and this solved part of the problem - most of the cells are behaving, but the merged cell still shows some strange behaviour. When I reload the file, the merged cell has extra height, but as soon as I do any edit on that table, it snaps up to the correct height.

1 Like
#12

I don’t see that in either 7.3.7.2, nor 7.5.5.1, assuming you are talking about the OLE embedded table.

There is another possible workaround if you don’t need any effects during the slide show. You could create your entire show in Writer having a suitably sized Landscape format and then export it to PDF. Adobe Reader, and some other pdf readers I believe, can make a passable presentation program in full screen mode, even responding to clicks on the presenter (clicker).

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