I assume that your problem is due the long names in the column named
"protein". You can have org-table clip the columns to a more reasonable
length by adding a row that contains e.g. <20> in the column to clip. This
will clip the column to 20 characters. You can still edit the full column
contents by doing ~C-c `~.

Thus add the following new row in the beginning or the end of the table:

|        |            | <20>                 |
|        |

move to <20> and press C-c C-c.

See: http://orgmode.org/manual/Column-width-and-alignment.html

Regards,
Dov

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 07:31, Rodolfo Aramayo <raramayo@tamu.edu> wrote:

> People,
>
> I am trying to use the powerful org-table features of org-mode to solve a
> simple problem
> I have imported a table from excel in both cvs and tab-delimited formats
> and converted the region to table
>
> the table looks like this:
>
> ##################################################################################
> | Entry | Entry name | Protein names | Gene names | Length
> |
>
> | Q01284 | 2NPD_NEUCR | Nitronate monooxygenase (EC 1.13.12.16)
> (2-nitropropane dioxygenase) (2-NPD) (Nitroalkane oxidase) | ncd-2
> G17A4.200 NCU03949 | 378 |
> | P05195 | 3DHQ_NEUCR | Catabolic 3-dehydroquinase (cDHQase) (EC 4.2.1.10)
> (3-dehydroquinate dehydratase) | qa-2 NCU06023 | 173
> |
> | Q7SDX3 | 3HAO_NEUCR | 3-hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase (EC
> 1.13.11.6) (3-hydroxyanthranilate oxygenase) (3-HAO) (3-hydroxyanthranilic
> acid dioxygenase) (HAD) (Biosynthesis of nicotinic acid
> protein 1) | bna-1 NCU03282 | 180
> |
>
> | P07046 | 3SHD_NEUCR | 3-dehydroshikimate dehydratase (DHS dehydratase)
> (DHSase) (EC 4.2.1.-) | qa-4 NCU06024 | 359
> |
>
>
> ##################################################################################
> but as soon as I try to align the columns, then org-table introduces a
> myriad of spaces where there were previously none
> Why is this happening?
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> I want to use org-mode for Bioinformatics and teach students to use it as
> a tool, but I cannot do it unless things work seamless on my hands
>
> Any help will be much appreciated
>
> --Rodolfo Aramayo, PhD
>