Chapter 19
In This Chapter
Understanding tables in Word
Building a table
Converting between text and a table
Selecting items in a table
Setting text alignment
Adding or inserting rows and columns
Applying table quick styles
Putting a caption on the table
Writing is a linear task. Characters flow into words, which flow into sentences, which form paragraphs. You start reading here and end up there. That’s how it works, up until the information you’re trying to organize is best presented in a grid. That’s when you need to summon a table.
A table presents information organized into rows and columns — a grid. You can use the Tab key to build such a thing, setting various and clever tab stops and formatting your text accordingly. That works, but it’s not the best solution.
The best way to add a table in your document is to use one of Word’s table creation commands. The commands build a custom grid of rows and columns. Within the gird are cells, into which you can place text or graphics. You can format each cell with its own margins, spacing, or paragraph style. Lines and background colors format the table itself. These feats are beyond the capabilities of the silly old Tab key.
To begin your table-making journey, click the Ribbon’s Insert tab. In the Tablets group, the only item is the Table button. Click that button to see the Table menu, as illustrated in Figure 19-1.
The Table menu features multiple ways to slap down a table in your document, each of which is illustrated in the following sections.
Once the table is created, start filling it in. See the later section, “Typing text in a table” for details. Or, if you already used the Tab key to create the text, see the section, “Convert tab-formatted text into a table.”
When a table is selected, or the toothpick cursor blinks inside the table, two new tabs appear on the Ribbon: Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout. These tabs contain the specific commands to format and modify the table. Details are offered later in this chapter.
Word offers multiple ways to create a table, from right brain to left brain to options between. The choices allow for more flexibility, but also make this chapter longer than it would be otherwise.
The best way to make a table in Word is to use the grid on the Table button’s menu, as shown in Figure 19-1. Follow these steps:
Drag through the grid to set the desired number of rows and columns.
You don’t need to be precise; you can always add or remove rows or columns later; see the later section, “Adding or removing rows or columns.”
In Figure 19-2, a four-column-by-three-row table is created. As you drag the mouse pointer on the menu, the table's grid magically appears in the document.
See the later section, “Text in Tables,” to continue your table task.
When dialog boxes make more sense than using menus and graphical goobers, follow these steps:
From the Table menu, choose the Insert Table command.
The Insert Table dialog box appears.
Free your mind from the constraints of conventionalism, clutch a crystal, and use the mouse to draw a table inside your document:
Click the Table button and choose Draw Table.
The mouse pointer changes to a pencil, as shown in the margin.
Drag to draw the table’s outline in your document.
Start in the upper-left corner and drag to the lower-right corner, which tells Word where to insert the table. You see an outline of the table as you drag down and to the right, as shown in Figure 19-3.
Draw horizontal lines to create rows; draw vertical lines to create columns.
Refer to Figure 19-3 (on the right) for an example of drawing a row.
As long as the mouse pointer looks like a pencil, you can use it to draw the rows and columns in your table.
If you’ve used the Tab key to create rows and columns of text, you can quickly snap that part of your document into an official Word table. Follow these steps:
Select the tab-formatted text.
If columns are separated by tabs, great. If not, each paragraph you select becomes a row in a single-column table.
Confirm the guesses made in the Convert Text to Table dialog box.
Ensure that the values for columns and rows are correct. If the columns are separated by tabs, ensure that Tabs is chosen at the bottom of the dialog box. Generally speaking, Word does a good job of guessing the conversion settings.
Drag around the Convert Text to Table dialog box so that you can better see the text in your document.
Click OK.
A table is born.
See the later section, “Table Modification” for information on fixing the freshly-created table.
Word comes with an assortment of spiffy predefined tables. Plopping one down in your document is as easy as using the Quick Tables submenu: Click the Table button and from the menu choose Quick Tables. Select a table type from the submenu.
Once the table is inserted, you can add or edit the existing text, add more rows or columns, or otherwise modify the table. Refer to directions elsewhere in this Chapter for specifics.
At some point, you may surrender the notion of needing a table, and desire the text to be freed from the table’s confines. To perform such a jailbreak, you convert the table back into plain text or even tab-formatted text. Obey these steps:
Click inside the table you want to convert.
Don’t select anything — just click the mouse.
From the Data group, choose Convert to Text.
The Convert to Text dialog box appears. It guesses how you want the table converted, such as using tabs or paragraphs.
Click OK.
Bye-bye, table. Hello, ugly text.
Some post-table-destruction cleanup might be necessary, but generally the conversion goes well. The only issue you may have is when a cell contains multiple paragraphs of text. In that case, undo the operation (press Ctrl+Z) and choose Paragraph Marks from the Convert to Text dialog box (before Step 5).
To utterly remove the table from your document, text and all, heed these destruction directions:
In the Rows & Columns group, choose Delete ⇒ Delete Table.
The table is blown to smithereens.
Deleting the table deletes its contents as well. If you need to save the contents, I recommend converting the table instead of deleting it. See the preceding section.
Text fills a table on a cell-by-cell basis. A cell can be empty or contain anything from a single letter to multiple paragraphs. The cell changes size to accommodate larger quantities of text.
Text appears in whichever cell the insertion pointer is blinking. Type your text and it wraps to fill the cell. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look right; you can adjust the cell size after you type the text, as described in the later section, “Adjusting row and column size.”
Two things you can select in a table are the text inside the cells or the cells themselves. You can also select rows, columns, or the entire table. Here are my suggestions:
Triple-click in a cell to select all text in that cell.
Move the mouse pointer into the left margin and click to select a row of cells.
If you have trouble selecting any part of a cell, click the Table Tools Layout tab. In the Table group, the Select button’s menu provides commands to select the entire table, a row, a column, or a single cell.
Text in a cell sports some special, table-specific alignment options. To adjust the position of text in a cell, follow these steps:
The nine icons represent all alignment combinations: left, center, and right, with top, middle, and bottom.
Click the Alignment group’s Text Direction button (shown in the margin) to change the way text reads in a cell. Keep clicking the button to reset the orientation.
No table is perfect. You may need to add or remove a row or column, adjust the width or height, or otherwise fine tune and format the table. The tools to help you are found on two special tabs on the Ribbon: Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout. To summon these tabs, click anywhere in a table. Then start making your adjustments.
Not only can you add rows and columns to any of a table’s four sides, you can squeeze new rows and columns inside a table. The secret is to click the Table Tools Layout tab. In the Rows & Columns group, use the Insert buttons to add new rows and columns.
To remove a row or column, click to position the mouse, and then click the Table Tools Layout tab. In the Rows & Columns group, choose the proper command from the Delete button menu.
When you choose the Delete ⇒ Delete Cells command, you see a dialog box asking what to do with the other cells in the row or column: Move them up or to the left. Also see the later sections, “Merging cells” and “Splitting cells.”
A mousey way to add a new row is to position the mouse pointer outside the table’s left edge. A + (plus) button appears, as shown in the margin. Click that button to insert a new row.
After text is in the table, you should adjust row height and column width to best present the information. This process works best after you’ve added text.
To automatically adjust the column width, position the mouse pointer at the left side of the column, just on the vertical border. The mouse pointer changes to the icon shown in the margin. Double-click and the column width is adjusted.
To evenly distribute row and column sizes, click the Table Tools Layout tab. In the Cell Size group, click the Distribute Rows and Distribute Columns command buttons.
To oddly distribute row and column sizes, click the Auto Fit button, also found in the Cell Size group on the Table Tools Layout tab. Use the commands on the Auto Fit menu to choose how to adjust a table’s row and column size.
The most common way to adjust rows and columns in a table is to use the mouse: Position the mouse pointer at the vertical or horizontal border within a table. When the pointer changes to a left-right or up-down pointy thing, drag left, right, up, or down to change the border’s position.
The completely rational way to combine two cells into one or to split one cell into two is to use the table drawing tools. Heaven have mercy on you should you decide to merge or split cells in any other fashion.
To combine two cells, erase the line that separates them. Follow these steps:
In the Draw group, click the Eraser tool.
The mouse pointer changes to a bar of soap, shown in the margin, but it's supposed to be an eraser.
Click the line between the two cells.
The line is gone.
The easy way to turn one cell into two is to draw a line separating the cell. Follow these steps:
In the Draw group, click the Draw Table button.
The mouse pointer changes to the pencil pointer.
Draw a line in the table to split a cell.
You can draw horizontally or vertically.
Any text in the cell you split goes to one side of the drawn line.
You can split cells also by selecting a single cell, and then choosing the Split Cells command from the Table Tools Layout tab’s Merge group. Use the Split Cells dialog box to determine how to best mince up the cell.
Unless you want your table to look like it was designed using hog wire, I recommend applying some table formatting. You can set the line's thickness, color, and style, and apply color to the various rows and columns. The commands necessary are found on the Table Tools Design tab; click anywhere with a table to summon that tab on the Ribbon.
The best way to stick a title or caption on your table is to use Word’s Insert Caption command. Don’t bother trying to find that command on any of the Table Tools tabs. Instead, follow these steps:
Click the Insert Caption button.
The Caption dialog box appears.
Type the table’s caption in the Caption text box.
Don’t worry about the text Figure 1, not yet.
Click the Label menu and choose Table.
The text in the Caption box changes from Figure 1 (or whatever number) to Table 1. You might need to edit the caption to add some space between the number and your text.
If you prefer a reference other than Table 1, click the new Label button and type the desired format.
Word supplies a sequential caption number after whatever text you type. The change is reflected in the Caption text box.
An advantage of using Word's Insert Caption command is that you can easily create a list of tables for your document. See Chapter 21 for details on building such a list.
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