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8 Formatting Tips For Perfect Tables in Microsoft Word
8 Formatting Tips For Perfect Tables in Microsoft Word
The quickest way to start is with Quick Tables. The built-in designs save you from the lack of design skills. You
can modify the designs by adding your own rows and columns or deleting the ones you don’t need.
Word 2013 introduced the Insert Control feature for inserting a new column or row with one click. Hover the mouse over a
table. A bar appears right outside your table between two existing columns or rows. click on it when it appears, and a new
column or row will be inserted at that position.
When you
want to move / order a row around, use the combination of Alt+Shift+Up Arrowand Alt+Shift+Down Arrow to
order the row up or down. Move contiguous rows by selecting them all first.
The Table Properties dialog box is for precise control over the data and its display. Control the size, alignment,
and indentation of the table. Do remember that table margins by default extend from the left margin to the right
margin of the page. The Indent figure controls the distance of the table from the left margin.
Position the table according to the text around it for a visually aesthetic look. Wrap text around tables by dragging it by the
handle. The text wrapping changes automatically from None to Around. From the Table Positioning dialog box you can
set the Distance from surrounding text for each side of the table.
Select Move with Text if the text is directly related to the table data. The table is vertically aligned to the related paragraph
around it. If the table data applies to the whole document, you can keep the option unchecked.
Select the text. Go to Ribbon > Insert > Table > Insert Table
Word determines the required number of rows and columns by considering the text separators and then auto-fits
the contents. The Convert Text to Table dialog box allows you more control if the previous operation doesn’t
work out right. You can also choose how to fit the contents of the table on the page.
You can specify how Word should separate the data into rows and columns. Paragraph, tabs, commas, or any
other delimiting character. This allows you to easily import non-tabular data from CSV files or plain TXT files
and convert them into formatted tables.
Go to Ribbon > Table Tools > Layout > In the Data Group, click Convert to Text.
Create a new column for the serial numbers if it does not exist. Select this column by positioning the mouse over
the column.
With the column selected, go to Home > Paragraph > Click the Numbering button for inserting a numbered list.
A number sequence is inserted in the column automatically.
The first step is to specify a fixed size for the cells. Go to Table Properties > Row > Enter a value in the Specify
height box. For Row height is select Exactly from the dropdown.
Now, select the Table tab > click the Options button > uncheck the Automatically Resize to Fit Contents check
box.
Click OK twice to exit the Table Properties dialog box.
This also solves the problem of inserting an image into a cell without the cell expanding to accommodate the
image. If the image is bigger than the available space in the cell, it gets cropped to fit within the cell.
Select a table. Go to Ribbon > Insert > Text group > click Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part
Gallery.
After you save a selection to the Quick Part Gallery, you can reuse the selection by clicking Quick Parts and
choosing the selection from the gallery.
Use the Building Blocks Organizer to preview any table you created. You can also edit properties and delete the
tables from here.
Tables are one common area between Word and Excel. Excel is for power managing tabular data, but doing them
well in both is an essential Office skill. So, jump in with your input.