MAKING TABLES WITH WORD BASIC INSTRUCTIONS Setting the Page Orientation Once in word, decide if you want your paper to print vertically (the normal way, called portrait) or horizontally (called landscape) If you wish it to print horizontally: a) Click on File and choose Page Setup. (This will bring up a new window.) b) Click on the Paper Size tab and click in the small circle beside Landscape in the orientation box. Then click O.K. (NOTE: in office XP click in the Landscape box) Inserting the Basic Table 1) Click on Table on the menu bar at the top of the page, then choose Insert Table (not "Draw Table") to bring up a new dialog box. 2) Enter the number of columns and rows needed. NOTE: Remember that items in a table do not have to be enclosed in a box. Therefore, if you wish to have text outside of the table, count that text as one of the columns or rows. See below for an example: 1:00 2:00 3:00 Daily Schedule Monday Tuesday Wednesday The example above is actually a 4 column, 5 row table. I have simply chosen not to have a border around the items in the first column (the times), or the top row (the title). 3) Once you have entered the number of columns and rows needed, click OK. (Do not worry about the other choices in the dialog box for now.) 1
Fitting the Table to the Page 1) Make sure you are in Page Layout view by clicking View on the toolbar and then choosing Page Layout from the list (or Print Layout if you are using Word 2000 or XP). 2) Click on the small triangle next to the percentage box on the toolbar, and choose Whole Page from the list. This will allow you to see the whole sheet at once and more easily determine how large you want to make your table. 3) Using your mouse, move the cursor over the bottom line of the table until double arrows appear. 4) Once you see the double arrow, hold down the mouse button while you drag the bottom line of the table as far as you want. Don t worry that the bottom row is wider than the others; this will be corrected later. NOTE- If you drag the bottom line too close to the bottom of the page you will go past the bottom page margin and the line will either shoot back up to where it was originally, or part of your table will appear on the next page. Try it again, (hit the undo button) but next time, don t pull the line down quite so far. 5) If you need to adjust the width of the table as well, position the cursor on the left, side border of the table until double arrows appear, then hold the mouse while you drag the line as far over as you want it. 6) Even though the finished table may need rows and columns of different sizes, you should make them evenly spaced for now so they are easier to work with. To accomplish this, do the following: a) Click on Table on the menu bar, then choose Select Table to highlight everything. b) Return to Table on the menu bar and select Distribute Rows Evenly. 2
c) Likewise, return to Table, and select Distribute Columns Evenly if the columns are uneven. Working with the Table Toolbar Click on the Tables and Borders icon on the standard toolbar Standard Toolbar - (Tables and Borders Icon) OR - click on Table at the top of the screen, then Draw Table. This will bring up the table toolbar. The new toolbar looks like this, in Word 97 or XP: Or like this, in Word 2000: Place your mouse over each of the toolbar icons for a moment and a box will appear telling you what each icon does. You will see that most of the choices in the table menu are on the toolbar as well. NOTE: If the table toolbar appears in the middle of your screen, you can drag it to the bottom of the screen, just above the taskbar. Making Rows and Columns the Right Size Once the table is in place, any column or row can be resized by dragging its border with the double-headed arrow. To make one column or bigger or smaller but keep the others evenly distributed, do the following: 1) Move the column or row line where you want it by dragging it with the mouse. (In my example I want the first column narrower than the rest.) This made the first column the size I wanted, but the remaining 4 columns are no longer even. 3
2) Highlight the columns you want to redistribute evenly. (To highlight some columns but not others, hold down the mouse button and drag it across all the cells within the columns you want to select, OR move the cursor to the top of a column until it becomes an arrow. Then hold down the mouse button and drag it across the top of the columns you wish to select.) 3) Once the columns are highlighted, click the icon for Distribute Columns Evenly in the "Table" toolbar, or choose it from the Table menu. (Distribute columns evenly) 4) This is how the table should look when you are done: Putting Text or Numbers in the Cells To add text or numbers, simply click in any cell and begin to type. Most of the normal formatting options (such as bold, italics, font size etc.) are available using the regular toolbars. Listed below are a couple of exceptions: 1) Tab stops will no longer work the same way. Hitting the tab key will move your cursor one cell to the right. If you need to set a tab to use within a cell of a table, you can move to the tab by holding down the control key while pressing the tab key. 2) Aligning your text as either left, center or right justified, will affect how it is aligned within each cell. In order to align the text vertically (at the top, middle or bottom of the cell) you will need to use the table toolbar. All three choices (top, middle and bottom) can be seen individually on the Word 97 table toolbar. In Word 2000 or XP, you will see only one choice on the toolbar. You will need to click on the tiny arrow next to the icon to see the other choices. Word 2000 Table s Toolbar Click here to choose a vertical text alignment within the cells 4
Other Text Considerations 1) When you type within a cell, the width of the column won t change, even if your text is longer than the cell. The text will simply wrap and continue on a second line within the cell. If your row width is only one line wide, but your text wraps to two lines, the width of that row will automatically increase to fit the text. If you wanted to have all your rows the same width, but the text forced some rows wider, highlight the rows you want to resize, then click on Distribute Rows Evenly. 2) Your text can be made to run vertically by highlighting the text (or selecting the cell the text is to go into), then clicking the Change Text Direction icon on the tables toolbar. This is a helpful option when you merge multiple cells of a column into one vertical cell. (See below for instructions) Merging Cells Any number of individual cells can be merged together to form one big cell. 1. Highlight the cells you wish to merge 2. Click on the Merge Cells icon on the toolbar OR choose it from the table menu. The top row of this table has been merged into one big cell Removing Border Lines Sometimes you want the borders of certain cells to be invisible (as in the first example of this document). This can be accomplished two ways: Using the border icon OR Using the eraser tool Eraser Tool Border Icon 5
Using the Border Icon: 1. Click in the cell whose border you want to change. Make a choice from the border icon drop down list. (To choose invisible borders, click on ) 2. Be aware that choosing to have invisible borderlines will affect the borders of the adjoining cells as well. For example, after making the top left cell s borders invisible I was left with this: To correct this problem, simply click in the adjoining cells and choose from the border list. Using the Eraser Tool: Click on the eraser tool on the toolbar. Then take the mouse to the beginning of the line you want to erase. Click and hold, and drag the mouse across the line. The line will become highlighted as you drag. When you let go the line will disappear. When you are finished with the eraser tool, you will need to click on the eraser icon again to turn it off. NOTES: 1. Using the eraser tool on interior borders actually removes them (rather than making them invisible) which will cause adjoining cells to merge into one. The eraser tool will not remove exterior borders however, but will make them invisible. Thus, the eraser tool is a good choice when you want to make a cell s exterior border lines invisible but not the interior ones. 2. Depending on the settings on your individual computer, borders that have been made invisible may still show up on your screen in a lighter shade of gray. To see how the table will look when printed out, check print preview (File! Print Preview) Other Options for Borders Border Icon: By clicking on the triangle next to the border icon, you will see other options for the borders around single cells or groups of cells. These borders can be applied to ANY SIZE group of cells (including a single cell). Highlight the cell(s) first, then chose the border you want. Using the Pencil Tool: The pencil tool is used to draw lines back in, or add new lines. Click on the pencil icon on the table toolbar, then click and drag with the mouse wherever you want to draw a new line. Turn the pencil tool off by re-clicking on the pencil toolbar icon. NOTE: you will not be able to draw new lines OUTSIDE the borders of the current table. 6
Adding Columns and Rows If your table does not stretch from margin to margin, simply highlight any column or row, then choose "Insert Column" (or row) from the table menu. If your table does go from margin to margin, inserting a new column or row may take your table off the page. To get around this you have three choices: 1. Move your mouse to a side or bottom edge and drag it toward the center to make the table smaller. Then insert a column or row and redistribute the column or row sizes as needed. 2. Highlight any column or row, and then choose "Split Cells" from the table menu. You will be asked how many columns and rows you want within the space you highlighted. Afterwards, redistribute the column or row sizes as needed. 3. Draw a new column line in with the pencil tool. When finished, redistribute the column or row sizes as needed. Adding a Title Select the top row of your table. Click on the Merge Cells icon on the toolbar OR choose it from the table menu. You can now format this new cell by centering the text and choosing invisible borders. The Most Important Thing to Remember about Tables! Until you get used to them, tables can sometimes be trying. If you do something that doesn't work out as you intended, it is best to hit the undo button and try something else rather than trying to correct your table from there. Other Neat Things Tables Can Do You can alphabetize the items in your table by selecting a column and using the sort command either from the table menu or from the table toolbar. This will also work for arranging items numerically or by date. One note of caution: if you use the sort command from the toolbar, it will assume that the top row is a header row (a row containing column titles) and will not include it in the sort. If it is not a header row, use the sort command from the Table menu. This will bring up a special sort window and allow you to select No Header Row. You can total a column or row of numbers using the Auto Sum icon on the table toolbar (presuming that you've left a cell open to put the total into.) Click in the cell where the sum is to go, then click the auto sum icon. Word will automatically add up the numbers in all the 7
cells directly above the selected cell. If there are no cells containing numbers above the selected cell, Word will insert the sum of any numbers to the left of the cell. Excel formulas can be used in tables by clicking in the cell where the formula is to go, then choosing "Formula" from the table menu. (You must be able to correctly type in the formula without wizards or shortcuts Use cell references just as you would in Excel. Columns are lettered from right to left; rows are numbered from the top down.) Word will take a table and convert it to text, or take a list and convert it into a table. Both these options are available in the Tables menu. Create a practice table or list and play around to see how this works. 8