distributing table rows evenly within a set boundary box

[Chay Sells]

Hi there, 

I'm having issues with tables in Indesign. 

I am trying to get them to distribute evenly, but within a set boundary so that they line up with each other and it looks neat. Currently whenever I distribute evenly it respaces itself and goes beyond the boundaries.  

Currently this is what is happening: image one - cells are out of proportion but aligned at the base

image one (aligned at the base, but uneven rows)

image two - after using the distribute evenly command it automatically reshapes boundary boxes.

image 2: I have used the command to make it evenly distributed but it automatically changes the boundary boxes beyond the area that I want it. 

How do I change this? 

Thanks, 

C

***P.S I can't figure out how to disconnect tables - maybe that would help? 

And also I have this happening on one of them - Besides being in the same table boundary, I can't highlight the table above? It just stops me doing it

(Sorry if basic, I don't use tables very often in my roles!) 

[John Mensinger]

Your terminology and the visibility of the baseline grid in your screenshots are making it hard to follow exactly what's happening there. So just a couple things to investigate:

• If by "boundaries" you mean the text frame in which the table resides, check its Text Frame Properties and turn off any Auto-Fit features. A text frame can't change in size (in response to a change in contents) unless it is set to Auto-Fit in some way.
• Also, select the whole table and check the Cell Options. Clear out any minimum Row Height settings under the Rows and Columns tab. If just one of the rows in your selected range has a minimum height setting, invoking the Distribute Rows Evenly command will make all the selected rows that same minimum height.