Working in the despair-valley of M$Word 2010... although this problem has existed with many versions. Trying to freaking set the freaking table column widths using the Table Properties "column" tab and it just freaking doesn't do it.
The answer that none of the stupid web sites that Google came back with on the subject seem to be able to add is that the overall "Preferred Table Width" setting in the first tab is also in effect, and if the total column widths that I set exceed that value, M$Word just silently ignores column width settings. So, the procedure for setting column widths must include first setting "Preferred Table Width," and then setting column widths that add up to equal or less than the total width.
