Many thanks for all replies.

I solved the problem by getting rid of the PREFERRED WIDTH concept at the table and column levels. This did not work in Word97. I instead used the simple concept of oTable.Columns(x).Width=..... Worked very well.

I have another challenge now ....

I have inserted a table which I would like to have centered on the page.

I have tried ... oRange.ParagraphFormat.Alignment= ....
I have tried ... oRange.ParagraphFormat.LeftIndent= ....

to no avail. Each of those seem to affect the contents of the table instead of the RANGE which includes the table.

Any help here ?