Microsoft® Word 97 Quick Reference
A table is a series of rows and columns. The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. The layout of a table looks like a small spreadsheet, similar to what you see in Microsoft Excel. In fact, when you copy an Excel range to Word, you create a Word table by default.
Tables are great alternatives to tabs when you have more than one column of related information to present. You can remove some or all of the lines or borders to create a tabbed effect. Within tables you can also add shading or colors, create formulas, change row height and width, and sort the information within the table.
After you create a table you may want to add shading, double borders, or other special features (see "Borders: Adding" and "Shading and Colors: Adding"). To apply professionally designed format options to your table, you can use the AutoFormat feature instead of formatting these features individually.
NOTE: For most of these procedures, you need to use the Tables and Borders toolbar. If it is not visible, click the right mouse button on any toolbar and choose Tables and Borders. Most of these procedures also assume you have already created a table. To create tables, see the tasks "Inserting: Tables with the Toolbar Button" and "Drawing: Tables."
Borders (lines) can define or enhance a table and draw attention to specific areas such as the header of the table.
Borders are lines that outline the edges of the cells. If you choose not to have borders, you can show gridlines to help you navigate within the table. The gridlines do not print. Another nonprinting character that you see when you have clicked the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar is the end-of-cell mark. You type between the cell's gridline and the end-of-cell mark. You also use the end-of-cell mark for replacing contents of cells.
If you have many tables within your document, you can use captions to identify each table. Captions will create consistent formatting and add sequential numbering to identify your tables.
NOTE: If you want to change the numbering (Roman numerals or letters, for example) of your table captions, choose Numbering on the Caption dialog box. If you want to create a new label for your tables, choose the New Label option.
You can use the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons on the Standard toolbar to move or copy cells or tables to different locations in your document (or another document). You can also use a modified version of drag and drop to move or copy cells within a table.
CAUTION: If you select just the text, you will add your copy to the text of the destination cell. If you include the end-of-cell mark, you will replace text.
In order to add borders, shading, merge cells, delete the contents of cells, and do many of the other options within this part, you need to first select the cells or table.
If you want one cell to become more than one cell, or one column or row to be divided into two or more columns or rows, you can split cells. You can also use this procedure as an alternative to inserting columns (see also "Columns: Adding or Deleting"), or to change the number of columns and rows in an existing table.
CAUTION: Be careful when splitting cells if your table already includes text. To avoid having all existing text merged into one cell, try unchecking the Merge Cells Before Split check box on the Split Cells dialog box.
You can center the entire table on a page (as well as left or right justify a table). This is different from centering text within the cells of a table by using the Center button on the Formatting toolbar.
Sometimes your table has too many or too few columns. You can remove or add one or more contiguous columns at a time. The same number of columns you select appear to the left of the selected columns. Alternatively, you can split cells (see "Cells: Splitting").
Normally, you will want to change the width of an entire column, rather than selected cells within a column to accommodate long text entries.
TIP: To resize all columns to the right of the column border you are dragging at the same time, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag the border. To see measurements in inches on the ruler, hold down the Alt key while you click one of the column borders.
Sometimes you will want to move the text away from the vertical borders of the table. Column spacing accomplishes this for you.
If you need the data from a table, you may (rarely) want to convert the table to text with some sort of separator between the data for the former columns. If you want the value of each cell on a new line, choose Paragraph Marks in the Convert Table to Text dialog box. (See also "Cells: Selecting and Editing.")
After you have typed text in a document or imported text from another source, you may want to convert the lines of text into a table. The most common separator between columns is a tab, but you can also turn comma-separated values into a table. If you are using tabs in your documents, you may want to convert the tabs to tables. One of the benefits of tables is that you can wrap text within a cell. You can choose No Borders if you don't want to see the lines. (See also "Borders: Adding.")
Drawing a table allows you to place the rows and columns where you want them. With the pencil mouse pointer, you do not have to create a row all the way across or a column all the way down. Just drag the pencil between two columns or two rows to split the cell in the column or row.
NOTE: If you begin to draw or erase a line and decide you don't want to complete the step, press Esc before you release the mouse button.
You can add, subtract, total, average and do other mathematical operations within a table. The most common need for calculations within a table is to total the last row or last column. The AutoSum button on the Tables and Borders toolbar will create a formula such as =SUM(ABOVE) or =SUM(LEFT).
For other formulas, you will need to use the Formula dialog box. When you refer to cells within a formula, imagine the row and column headers that are common to spreadsheets. A1 is the upper-left cell, B1 is the first cell in the second column, A2 is the first cell in the second row, and so on. To indicate a range of cells, type a colon between two cell references such as A2:A5.
NOTE: If you change the numbers within the table, select the table and press F9 to recalculate the formulas.
CAUTION: If you include ABOVE or LEFT within parentheses in your functions, any text you have as a heading is also used for your calculations. This will be okay for SUM, but will give you incorrect results for the AVERAGE function.
NOTE: Functions included in Word are SUM, AVERAGE, ABS, COUNT, DEFINED, FALSE, IF, INT, MIN, MAX, MOD, NOT, OR, PRODUCT, ROUND, SIGN, and TRUE. For help on these functions, click the Help button on the Formulas dialog box, and then click the Paste Function drop-down box. If the function you want is not listed, create an Excel worksheet and copy the range to your Word document.
Gridlines are gray lines that show on your document when you have no borders displayed in your table. You use gridlines so you can see the outlines of your cells that would otherwise be invisible.
NOTE: If you want to remove borders from your table, select the table and choose the No Border option from the Borders drop-down list on the Tables and Borders toolbar.
In many instances, you may create a table that carries across multiple pages. In some of those instances, you may want to repeat the first row or rows on each page. This helps the reader to follow the flow of the table better.
If you want to separate text from the left border of a cell you can tab or indent. Tab moves the first line of text, while indent can indent the first or all lines of a paragraph within a cell. (See also "Columns: Spacing" to indent for all columns.)
For more information on setting tabs and indents, see also "Indenting: From Left" in the "Getting Started" section of this book, and "Tabs: Setting" in the "Formatting" section of this book.
You can build a table with the Tables and Borders button (see also "Drawing: Tables"), or with the Insert Tables button. If you know the number of columns you want, using the Insert Tables button is quicker.
When you use the Insert Tables button to create tables, you may want to merge one or more cells into one larger cell. This is often the case when you want to create one or more headings at the top of your table. (See also "Inserting: Tables with the Toolbar Button.")
After you create a table, you may decide to add emphasis to the heading rows by increasing their height or changing the alignment of the text. You can even change the direction of the text. You can increase the height of rows within your table as well as position the text within the taller rows.
To add additional rows to the bottom of the table, click in the last cell of the table and press Tab. Word automatically adds a new row to the bottom of the table. You may also need to add rows to the middle of the table or delete unwanted rows. The same number of rows you select appears above the selected rows.
While you are creating a table, you may determine that the information would be more clear if you numbered the lines within the table. You can number rows of a cell just as you can number paragraphs within your document.
TIP: If you want to number each cell in a selection from left to right, select the rows you want to number, then click the Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar.
In addition to the borders surrounding cells of a table, you can shade cells to draw attention to important items such as titles or totals.
You can sort items in a table by one or more columns. When you sort, you will generally have headers to label each column that are not included in the sort. For additional options to sort based on more than one column or without the header row, choose Table, Sort and Fill in the Sort dialog box.
TIP: If you need to perform a sort with more than one sort criteria, you can use the Table, Sort command to set up to three sort criteria.
Sometimes you are better off having two tables rather than one complex table. Splitting a table creates a blank line between rows. If you position the insertion point in the first row, you get an extra blank line above the table.
You use the mouse or the Tab key to move between cells of a table. When you are on the last cell and press Tab, Word adds a new row at the bottom of the table.
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