Title: TablePress column width "Custom CSS" not work Last modified: August 20, 2016 --- # TablePress column width "Custom CSS" not work * Resolved [kencooperjr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kencooperjr/) * (@kencooperjr) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/) * Have been trying to get TablePress to work for about the past two hours. I am at this point quite convinced it is a useless product. Seems to have potential but as of now – useless. Install works, can reference appropriate CSV Excel table (ID=1), shows data, can scroll left/right & up/down. However, the “Custom CSS” commands completely fail to work! i.e. .tablepress-id-1 .column-1 { width: 10px; } Whether it is 1, 5, 10, 15, 50px makes no difference the column width does not change. The preview mode or simply using a URL. The preview shows narrower columns than the browser – using IE and FireFox. Also when I check “The first row of the table is the table header.” it really messes up in that the column headings end up not close to the actual data in their columns (have 19 columns). * Would greatly appreciate any help to get this plugin working. * Cannot furnish URL to table due to data privacy issues. * THANKS – Ken [kencooperjr@hotmail.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/kencooperjr@hotmail.com?output_format=md) * [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tablepress/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tablepress/) Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Plugin Author [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/) * (@tobiasbg) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/#post-3286644) * Hi Ken, * thanks for your feedback, it is much appreciated! I’m sorry to hear that you feel that the plugin is useless as of now, but I feel that you are mixing things up here. The “Custom CSS”, and especially how it is being applied to a table, is not actually a feature or invention of TablePress. Instead, CSS is more like a general styling language that is used in the web to style web pages, by giving commands to the web browser on how to render or style various elements on the page. All WordPress themes use it, and that’s where one common problem lies: Some themes also contain CSS styling commands for tables, which then can interfere with the CSS of TablePress, or with the CSS that one enters into the “Custom CSS” textarea. Additionally, styling tables (and especially the aspects of widths in tables) is one of the more complicated tasks. The reason is that tables, to some degree, respond differently to the commands. This can usually be seen in exactly the example code that you are using to make columns smaller. A table will never allow columns to be smaller than what their content demands, and thus it appears that your CSS code does not have an effect. In most cases, it is then possible to reduce the width by making inner margins and paddings smaller. The issue about the table head row is likely a case where the theme CSS interferes with the styling, which is why you get that result. * To find out exact reasons and hopefully find code that is working, I’d really need to see the table. As you can’t publish a link here for privacy reasons, I’ll therefore contact you by email. * Regards, Tobias * Plugin Author [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/) * (@tobiasbg) * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/#post-3286650) * Hi, * just for everybody reading this: After working with Ken directly, we found that his current theme contains a lot of CSS code that influences tables, and interferes with the “Horizontal scrolling” function that he needs for his table. As there were other technical issues with fixing this directly, Ken will now look for another theme, that does not cause this trouble. * Best wishes, Tobias * [Dominor Novus](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dominor-novus/) * (@dominor-novus) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/#post-3286660) * [@kencooperjr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kencooperjr/): * In fairness and in the interests of launching future support topics, try simply describing your problem before making overly-dramatic, undue, inaccurate, and misleading judgements (e.g. “useless product”). * I understand that hours of debugging can be beyond frustrating but you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar when it comes to seeking support in general. * As a rule of thumb and as practiced by TobiasBg, whenever you experience an issue with a plugin, it’s a good idea to switch to WordPress’s default theme e.g. TwentyTen, TwentyEleven, TwentyTwelve etc. * Secondly, don’t publish your email address in support forums. Spammers will collect and archive your address and flood you with spam mail. Either bookmark the page or check the “Notify me of follow-up posts via email” checkbox whenever you post a topic or reply. WordPress.org already has your email address. You don’t need to print it for developers or other users to email you. * Plugin Author [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/) * (@tobiasbg) * [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/#post-3286661) * Hi, * thanks for these words. They are very true. The advice about switching themes is very good, I’ve added it to the forums sticky post 🙂 * Best wishes, Tobias Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) The topic ‘TablePress column width "Custom CSS" not work’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/tablepress/assets/icon.svg?rev=3192944) * [TablePress - Tables in WordPress made easy](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/tablepress/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/tablepress/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/tablepress/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/tablepress/reviews/) ## Tags * [column header](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/column-header/) * [column width](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/column-width/) * [header](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/header/) * [width](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/width/) * 4 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/) * Last activity: [13 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/tablepress-column-width-custom-css-not-work/#post-3286661) * Status: resolved