Copying and pasting an Excel table into Word

Okay, here's my problem. In Excel 2003, I select and copy an Excel table. I
paste it into Word. On the Paste Options dropdown list I select Match
Destination Formatting, which I understand will convert the pasted object
into a Word table.

But the table that appears in Word is 19" wide! Regardless of what I try ---
reducing the preferred with or matching the contents to the window --- I
cannot get the danged thing to reduce even to a landscape-size, let alone a
portrait size (8 1/2 x 11). What am I not doing, or what am I doing wrong
--
Wallace