What is the preferred method to hide columns in a LibreOffice Writer Table?
You did not mention the purpose of hiding columns (you can edit your question to explain what you want to do; don’t use an answer for that).
Writer tables are not primarily intended for computation like those in spreadsheets (Calc component). They show text in tabular form (though there is a very basic formula feature)…
Hiding a column is a common trick in spreadsheet not to show intermediate computations not meaningful for the end-user. There is no such feature in Writer. Of course, you can format cell content as hidden but this does not hide the cell itself and its area and borders are still there. If you reduce column width to a very small size, you cause the row height to grow tremendously to accomodate cell text due to numerous linewraps.
There may be other ways to obtain what you’re looking for provided you explain the context and the expected result.
EDIT after additional info provided
Apparently, you have calculations in your table. May I suggest another approach to the problem. This is valid if your table brings quantitative data to the discourse. If the table is all you have to show (no comment, no explanation), you’ll be better off with Calc.
Instead of using a Writer table, Insert>Object>OLE Object and Create new spreadsheet. Thus you have the full power of Calc, notably the possibility to hide columns after a right-click, and also the full power of Writer to format and decorate the table.
When you need to add new data to your table, right-click on it and Edit.
In case your data is already in a separate spreadsheet, choose Create from file when inserting the spreadsheet. Hiding columns is done in the same way with a right-click and Hide Columns.
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Many thanks for answering.
My intent is to add data (sort of annual report data) in a Writer Table.
Over time the number of columns grow (from left), pushing earlier columns to the right.
For layout reasons, I only have need to view the most recent years with my eyes;
older columns should be held invisible, but their data should still be accessible
as it is used by calculations in the visible columns.