Turn the (Word) Tables Word Processing in Rows and Columns Helen Bradley
Wed 5/8/02 -- Of all the layout tools in your word processor, tables are the most useful. They're easy to create -- infinitely easier than in the old days of making do-it-yourself tables with the tab key and ruler -- and they provide a much-needed way to place numeric values, labels, or pieces of text side by side while keeping them separate. Long ago, WordPerfect was the word processor for creating tables and the standard by which others were judged. It was years before Microsoft Word caught up, but catch up it did, and today Word's table functions are remarkably sophisticated and powerful. This week, I've rounded up some of my best tips for making the most of them.
Adding a background picture. While it's easy to add images to a single table cell (left-click in it and choose Insert/Picture), it's a different task to add an image so it appears "behind" the entire table. To do this, add the image to your document and resize it to match the table. Then right-click the image and choose Format Picture, then the Layout tab. Choose the "Behind text" option and drag the image into position behind the table.
It's a moving thing. You can move a Word 2000/2002 table by holding your mouse over the table until the move icon appears in its top left corner, then dragging to move it on the page. As a bonus, whenever the move icon appears, a single sizing handle also appears in the bottom right corner -- use this to adjust the overall size of the table.
To move or change the order of table rows, click in a cell in the row to move and press Alt-Shift-Up Arrow (or Down Arrow). The current row will move up or down the table -- move it past the top or bottom, and it'll split off to become a second table. (Bonus: this works on multiple selected rows and normal text paragraphs too).
Tab-key tricks. Press the Tab key to move around a table from one cell to the next, from left to right, and then down a row. When you're in the bottom right cell, press Tab agan to add a new row. To line up text using a tab stop in a table, press Control-Tab.
To align numbers in a column in a table, type the numbers in the cells, highlight the column, use the tab indicator at the left of the Word ruler to select a decimal tab, and drop it into position in the ruler line. The numbers will then appear aligned by their decimal points, overriding the default left justification for text in the cell.
Row, row, row numbers. To automatically number the rows in a table, select the cells to contain the numbers (generally the first or leftmost column) and click the Numbering button on the Formatting toolbar. If you later move rows up or down (see above for a quick way to do this) or insert or delete a row, the rows will renumber appropriately.
Sort just about anything. Strictly speaking, while Word's Sort command appears in the Table menu, it isn't just for tables. You can choose Table/Sort to sort not only the contents of a table, but regular Word paragraphs and text in tabbed columns.
Sizing options. To keep your table cells to a fixed size, hold your mouse over the border line to adjust them, and press the Alt key as you drag the border. A small ruler appears along the top or left side of the editing window, displaying measurements as you drag.
When you find you can't drag a cell border past the border of the cell to its right (or below it), hold the Control key as you drag. This lets you move past other cell borders; you can hold both the Control and Alt keys to see dimensions as you drag.
Be careful when sizing table cells -- if you have a cell selected, your changes will be applied to that cell only. To change the size of all the cells in a row or column, either select the entire row or column, or select nothing at all (simply position the insertion point in a cell in the column or row you want to alter).
Quick and easy formatting. The Tables and Borders toolbar contains a Shading Color button which makes it easy to apply shading to table cells -- simply click to color the selected cell(s). Display the toolbar, if it isn't visible, by right-clicking the Standard toolbar and left-clicking the Tables and Borders menu item.
It's worth noting that this Shading Color button looks exactly like the Fill Color button on Word's Drawing toolbar, but works very differently (the Fill Color button won't fill a table cell). Also on the Tables and Borders toolbar is the Change Text direction button, which rotates a cell's contents through three possible text directions and allows you to fit long titles in narrow columns.
