It is a public holiday where I am (Anzac Day) so my brain is not running at peak efficiency. But here goes. Without seeing the data you are using, I am guessing a little. But here is what I would do. This is my work-around for the problem:
In an empty page, create a text frame of the width you want your table to be. Then, within that text frame, create a table with only one row and with the number of columns you want. If you plan to have a header row as well, you can set this up at the same time using the Table/Insert Table… menu command. Then adjust the widths of the columns to those you want. Give the table whatever other features you know (or expect) you will need whenever you use it in the future. This is then your “template” table.
I figured that the most efficient way to use this “template” table is to save it as an ordinary InDesign document (.indd), perhaps giving it a title that allows you to identify it quickly, such as “Six-column data table.indd”. Then, whenever you need that particular table format, open the “template” document, select the table, copy it and then, in the document where you want it to be, paste it in. The data can then be copied and pasted, or simply typed, into the cells as needed.
This work-around does NOT give you a table style to be applied to another table. However, if you are importing another table from elsewhere (or rather, using the data from another table) and therefore know the number of rows, you can do this:
1. Copy and paste your “template” table as above.
2. Increase the size of your newly-pasted table to the desired number of rows using the Table/Table Options/Table Setup… dialog box.
3. Select the contents of your other table and copy.
4. Select all the cells of your new table and paste.
The data should then appear in the new table but retain the column widths that you have established.
Let me stress that this is a work-around. It is not pretty, but it works. I will be delighted if some other contributor comes up with a better solution.
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