Tables in Preview in Markdown fail to get proper width

[Steph_Nachname]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I use .md files to quickly get an overview of datasets, that were collected from scripts. I look at them right in the IDE and can edit them there, if needed.

However, Cursor seems to not follow conventions for tables, as it seems impossible to define column widths.

For example, this table:

#	Rad	Titel	Firma	Arbeitsort	Quelle

is being properly shown, with correct width per column, at an online markdown-validator.

But in Cursor is just evens out the width, leading to the table being way longer than needed, since some columns contain a lot of text and others only 2 signs.

Steps to Reproduce

Create an .md file in Cursor, show it via Preview with this table:

#	Rad	Titel	Firma	Arbeitsort	Quelle

Expected Behavior

Columns should have varied width.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

3.13.10 (user setup)

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Unrelated

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the detailed report with screenshots.

This is a limitation of the built-in Preview toggle WYSIWYG mode in the top right of the .md file. It drops the width HTML attributes on tables and spreads the columns evenly. So the issue isn’t the table itself, the markup is correct.

Workaround: use the dedicated Markdown preview instead of the toggle. Open the .md file and press Ctrl+Shift+V, or use the Command Palette and run Markdown: Open Preview to the Side. This preview renders raw HTML as-is and correctly respects the column widths you set.

I’ve reported the difference in behavior between the two previews internally as a renderer limitation. There’s no ETA for a change yet, but the dedicated Markdown preview should cover your use case. Let me know if anything still looks off.

[Steph_Nachname]

Thanks Dean. The shortcut works fine.