With the selecction in the table, click on the Table Tools Layout tab and
then on the Properties button in the Table section of the ribbon and then
click on the Options button on the Table tab of the Table Properties dialog
and uncheck the Option box for Automatically resize to fit contents.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Kevryl" wrote in message
...
Well I'm new to Word 2007 but have been using Word since 1993. I do recall
earlier versions could be a bit tricky with this too, but not like 2007.

I don't want "preferred" column width. I want "column width". I just want
it
to obey me, take on the width I specify and then and stay put until I
change
it.

One column has gone wide and pushed others off the right-hand edge. Now,
every time I try to change the widths to get those columns back, instead
of
columns shrinking as specified, the various columns randomly reduce and
expand but the lost columns stay lost.

Any ideas?