Title: How do I limit table width?
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# How do I limit table width?

 *  Resolved [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * (@davidbe929)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/)
 * I used width=”590″ in a table but the table came out much wider. It is not due
   to items inside the table being too wide. Here is the post (the colored section
   is the part that is obviously too wide):
    [http://blog.nss.org/?p=4260](http://blog.nss.org/?p=4260)
   Information on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387697)
 * Your theme sets table width in this CSS:
 *     ```
       #content table {
           border: 1px solid #E7E7E7;
           margin: 0 -1px 24px 0;
           text-align: left;
           width: 100%;
       }
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * (@davidbe929)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387706)
 * I changed the CSS above from “width: 100%;” to “width: 590px;” and it made no
   difference.
 * How do I fix it? Thanks.
 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387709)
 * If you add up the widths you have in that table – it’s bigger than 590.
 * Images are 280 and you have padding of 24 (times 4).
 * BTW, you really may want to avoid using tables at all – for layout, CSS is a 
   much better way to go.
 *  Thread Starter [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * (@davidbe929)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387714)
 * The width of everything in the table comes to 594 pixels, so I miscalculated 
   by 4 pixels, but that does not account for the problem I am having. I can definitely
   live with 594 pixels! But the table displays much wider than that. The question
   still remains: How can I fix it so it displays at 594 pixels wide? I tried adjusting
   the CSS as mentioned above without success.
 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387715)
 * By my count:
 * 280 + 280 + 24 + 24 + 24 + 24 + 1 + 1 = 658
 * Maybe you’re not counting this padding:
 *     ```
       #content tr td {
           border-top: 1px solid #E7E7E7;
           padding: 6px 24px;
       }
       ```
   
 * and the border here:
 *     ```
       #content table {
           border: 1px solid #E7E7E7;
           margin: 0 0 24px;
           text-align: left;
           width: 590px;
       }
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * (@davidbe929)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387720)
 * Aha, I see. I tried removing all the CSS below and that had no effect either.
 *     ```
       #content table {
       	border: 1px solid #e7e7e7;
       	margin: 0 -1px 24px 0;
       	text-align: left;
       	width: 100%;
       }
       #content tr th,
       #content thead th {
       	color: #888;
       	font-size: 12px;
       	font-weight: bold;
       	line-height: 18px;
       	padding: 9px 24px;
       }
       #content tr td {
       	border-top: 1px solid #e7e7e7;
       	padding: 6px 24px;
       }
       #content tr.odd td {
       	background: #f2f7fc;
       ```
   
 * So I still don’t have a solution.
 *  [WPyogi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpyogi/)
 * (@wpyogi)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387721)
 * You really should not be modifying theme files – your changes will all be lost
   when the theme is updated. So start by installing a custom CSS plug – like this
   one:
 * [http://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-css-manager-plugin/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-css-manager-plugin/)
 * Then ADD this CSS there:
 *     ```
       #content tr td {
           padding: 0px 0px;
       }
       ```
   
 * You may want to adjust those to something a bit bigger so the text isn’t right
   to the edge.
 *  Thread Starter [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * (@davidbe929)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387722)
 * Voila! That did the trick! Many thanks. Topic resolved. Should prove useful for
   other things as well. Thanks again.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

The topic ‘How do I limit table width?’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [table width](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/table-width/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 8 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [davidbe929](https://wordpress.org/support/users/davidbe929/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-do-i-limit-table-width/#post-4387722)
 * Status: resolved

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