TABLE FORMATTING

A table is a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns. The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. Tables are useful for various tasks such as presenting text information and numerical data, organizing and presenting information, alignment of numbers in columns, and sorting and performing calculations. In MS Word, you can create a blank table, convert text to a table and apply a variety of styles and formats to existing tables. Take note of the following table formatting options available in MS Word.

HOW TO CREATE TABLE

There are a few methods you can use to create tables in MS Word. You can insert, draw, or copy in a table from elsewhere, should you want to. Here is how to create and customize tables in MS Word.

You can insert table in several ways; you can add a table by inserting it automatically with a set size, or you can draw a table manually using your mouse or track pad.

Alternatively, you can also copy and paste a grouping of cells from Excel. Once passed, Word will convert these cells into the format of a table. The instruction below should work for all recent versions of Word. There may be slight differences in older versions of office, however.

To add a table, you’ll need first to open a blank or existing document and click the Insert tab on the Ribbon bar. From here, click the Table button.

This will display a drop-down with various options. To insert a table automatically, select the size you want from the grid.

Once pressed, the table will be inserted onto the page using the number of rows and columns you select.

Alternatively, press the Insert Table option, selecting the number of rows and columns you need form the Insert Table pop-up box that appears afterward.

You can also draw a table instead. From the Table drop-down menu, click the Draw Table option

Using the mouse or trackpad, draw a table to the size you want on your choose page. Once you’ve created the outer border for your table, you’ll need to draw downwards inside the table to add a column or horizontally to add a row.

As we’ve mentioned, you can also paste in a table using cells from a Excel spreadsheet. To do this, open an Excel spreadsheet, select a grouping of cells and Press Ctrl + C on your keyboard (or Press Home > Copy.

Return to your Word document, then press Ctrl+V on your keyboard to paste the cells into your document (or click Home > Paste.

FORMATTING TABLE

Once your table is created in Word, you can then being to format it. You can resize the table once it’s been created, as well as alter the bordering, font style, and more.

One easy way to format your table is by using a table style. These apply preset formatting choices to your table. To add these select your table, then press the Design tab under the Table Tools section on the ribbon bar.

Click one of the options from the Table Styles section to apply that style to your table.

To add your own formatting, select and right-click your table, then press Table Properties.

You can set the size of your table using the options shown in the various tabbed menus in the table Properties box. These include options to alter the length, width, and alignment of your table columns and rows.

To change the border and shadings of your table, press the Borders and Shadings button at the bottom of the Table tab.

You can easily change other table formatting options, including the font, color, and other text styles, using the standard formatting options in Word.

To do this, select the text in your table, then use the formatting options from the Font and Paragraph sections in the Home tab on the ribbon bar to make changes.

QUICK TABLES

Quick Tables are Word’s table templates. In addition to the nine templates provided, you can create your own designs and save them to the Quick Tables Gallery to use latter. Click Insert > Tables > Quick Tales. Select a table template from the menu, then modify it to fit your project.

HOW TO CONVERT TEXT TO TABLE

The table tools can also make lists a lot easier to customize and even reorganize later. For our example, we will turn a classic contact list into a table, using a list of names, first, middle, last – plus the city, state, region, and profession of each person on the list.

For eons, people have used tabs to separate the fields, adding a tab or two to accommodate longer strings of data. But if you do this, when you convert the table to text, it misplaces all the data.

With the Covert Text to Table feature, you can separate the fields as (Name, City, State, etc.) with paragraphs, tabs, commas, or other separator character, but use only one separator between each field.

So, to convert your text to table;

1. Highlight the text
2. Click the Table tab on the Ribbon
3. Click Convert Text to TableIn the dialog box, fill in the number of columns and rows.
4. Click Ok.

HOW TO DESIGN TABLE

Notice that once the table is created, it new option called Table Tools appears on the Ribbon bar with two new tabs: Design and Layout. There are three options to modify and/or decorate tables:

1. Use the Table Tools > Design or Layout commands on the Ribbon menu’
2. Right-click and use the Shortcut popup menus
3. Use the keyboard shortcuts, which become visible when you press the ALT key on your keyboard.

All of these methods are fast and easy, but using a combination of all three will always be quicker. For example, use your mouse to highlight, then right-click to copay with your right hand; then arrow down to the new location and press Ctrl+V to paste.

Let’s take at the layout and Design section below for details regarding their respective options.

1. Layout Tab. Let’s you modify the structure of the table. The menu is fairly self-explanatory, and you can roll your cursor over a feature to get further clarification. The Major features of the Layout Tab includes.

• Insert or Delete (from Rows and Columns group)
  • Add or remove Rows and Columns;
  • Merge or Split Cells or Split a table (from the Merge group)
  • Text Direction in a Cell (from alignment group)
  • Rotate the text inside the table
  • Table Properties – provides several options for aligning the table with the text or wrapping text around your table.
  • Cell Margin enable you to change the margins inside each cell.
  • Sort enable you to sort the table data alphabetically or numerically, just like in Excel. You can also sort by column numbers or by column headers. It also provide two sort levels, e.g. you can sort by last Name, or by First Name.
  • Convert Table to Text enable you convert your table back to a text block. Just choose the separator you prefer, so when the table grid disappears, the data isn’t all jumbled together.

HOW TO CALCULATE WITH A WORD TABLE

Formulas option in the Layout Tab enable you to insert formulas to calculate your numeric data. To calculate Total for instance, position your cursor in the last row and the last column cell, and click the Formula button under the Data group. In the Formula dialog box type =SUM(Above) formula [or =Count() or =Average ()] in the Formula field box. If you are unfamiliar with the formulas, Word provides click the down arrow under the Paste Function field, and choose a formula from the list. 

Here are the steps:

• Place your cursor in the cell where you wants the calculated value to appear.
• Click the formula option at the extremely end of the Layout tab options
• In the dialog box type the Formula =SUM(Above)  or select your value from the Paste Function and Word will automatically input the Formula for you.
• Select the Number format

• Click Ok.

• Design Tab

The Design tab contains the following features you can use in making your table more presentable and attractive.

Such features include; Borders, Shading, Border Styles, table styles, pen colour, border painter among others. See the screenshot below to see how you can leverage the Design Table to create interesting designs for your table.