Make and edit tables

A table is a grid of rows and columns. Each box in the grid is a cell, and each cell holds its own text.

Insert a table

• Click Home > Objects > Table (or Insert > Tables > Table). Slide across the grid to pick the rows and columns, and then click.
• Or choose Insert Table… at the bottom of that menu. In the Create Table dialog, set Number of rows, Number of columns, and Table format.
• Or choose Draw Table in the Table menu on the Home tab, and drag a rectangle. You get 3 rows and 3 columns.

The table appears mid-page. Drag its edge to move it.

Type in a table

Click a cell and type. Press Tab to go to the next cell and Shift+Tab to go back. Press Tab in the last cell to add a row. A row grows taller to fit its text.

Select cells, rows, columns, or the whole table

• Click inside a cell to work on that cell.
• To select several cells at once, drag from one cell into another. Or click a cell, and then hold Shift and click another. The cells in the rectangle between the two are shaded, and Shift+click again moves the far corner. A merged cell is always selected whole.
• Click Table Layout > Table > Select for Select Cell, Select Row, Select Column, and Select Table. Select Cell selects all the text in the cell you are in. Select Row and Select Column select every cell in the row or column you are in. If you already selected several cells, they select every row or column those cells reach.
• Click the outer edge of the table, or press Esc while you type, to select the whole table. Press Esc when cells are selected to go back to the whole table.

You can do all of this from the keyboard. Press Alt, and then J and L to open Table Layout. Then press S and L to open the Select menu, use the arrow keys to pick a command, and press Enter. With cells selected, Enter or F2 starts typing in the first of them, and Delete clears their text but keeps the table.

Fills, borders, diagonals, alignment, cell margins, and text formatting (such as font, size, bold, italic, underline, color, and alignment) apply to every selected cell, and one Undo takes them all back. They apply to the cell you are in if you just clicked in one, and to every cell when the whole table is selected. Diagonals need you to be in a cell or to have cells selected.

Add and delete rows and columns

1. Click in a cell next to the spot you want, or select several cells.
2. In Table Layout > Rows & Columns, click Insert Above, Insert Below, Insert Left, or Insert Right. With cells selected, the new row or column goes above, below, left of, or right of all of them.
3. To remove rows or columns, click Delete and choose Delete Rows, Delete Columns, or Delete Table. Delete Rows removes every row the cell you are in or your selected cells reach, and Delete Columns does the same for columns.

With the whole table selected, Insert Above and Insert Left add at the start of the table, and Insert Below and Insert Right at the end. If a new row or column goes through a merged cell, the merged cell grows to take it in. To delete a row or column, click in it first. A table keeps at least one row and one column, and has at most 256 rows and 256 columns.

Change sizes

• Type a number in Table Layout > Size > Height or Width to size the whole table. A new width scales every column in proportion, and a new height scales every row in proportion. A row never gets shorter than its text needs while Grow to Fit Text is checked.
• Drag a line between two columns to change their widths. The table stays the same width.
• Drag a line between two rows to change a row's height.
• Click Table Layout > Size > Distribute Rows or Distribute Columns to make them equal.

Merge and split cells

Select the cells you want to join, and choose Table Layout > Merge > Merge Cells. They become one cell, and their text combines, a paragraph from each cell, from left to right and top to bottom. If you only click in a cell, Merge Cells joins it with the cell on its right. Split Cells turns merged cells back into separate cells.

Color and borders

Use the Table Design tab.

• Table Formats is a gallery of ready-made looks. A format sets fills, borders, and heading text.
• Cell Fill colors the selected cells, the cell you are in, or the whole table.
• For borders, first pick a Line Color and a Line Weight. Then click Borders and choose All Borders, Outside Borders, Inside Borders, No Border, or one side such as Top Border.
• Diagonals divides a cell with a line from corner to corner. Choose Divide Down or Divide Up. Each half has its own text: the cell's text stays in the first half (the lower left of a line that runs down, the upper left of one that runs up), and the second half starts empty. Click in a half to type there, or press Tab to go from one half to the next, and then to the next cell. The text wraps inside its half, so its lines get shorter toward the point of the triangle. The row does not grow for it, so make the row taller if text is cut off. Choosing Divide Down or Divide Up for a cell that is already divided turns the line the other way and keeps its color and weight. No Division removes the line and puts the second half's text after the first's, and the row grows if the joined text needs more room.

To place text in a cell, use the buttons in Table Layout > Alignment: top, middle, or bottom, and left, center, right, or justified. Cell Margins, also there, sets the space between a cell's edges and its text: None, Narrow, Moderate, or Wide. The top, middle, and bottom buttons and Cell Margins change the selected cells, the cell you are in, or every cell when the whole table is selected.

Text Direction, also in Table Layout > Alignment, turns the text in a cell a quarter turn, so its lines read from top to bottom. It suits a heading over a narrow column. Click it again to turn the text back. The row does not grow to fit turned text, so drag the line under the row down until the text fits.

Hyphenation, next to it, opens the Hyphenation dialog. There you turn Automatically hyphenate this story on or off, which sets whether long words break with a hyphen at the end of a line, and you set the Hyphenation zone. Words in cells are hyphenated unless you turn it off. See Spelling, thesaurus, research, and hyphenation.

Text Direction changes the selected cells, the cell you are in, or every cell when the whole table is selected, and each cell keeps its own. Hyphenation is different: the text in a table is one story, so the setting belongs to the whole table, whichever cells are selected, and a .pub file keeps it that way. Add Optional Hyphens in the dialog works on the text of the selected cells, the cell you are in, or every cell when the whole table is selected.

View Gridlines in Table Layout > Table shows dotted lines around every cell on screen. They do not print.

Format Table

Right-click the table and choose Format Table. Or click the small arrow at the corner of Table Layout > Alignment, which opens it on Cell Properties. The dialog has these tabs:

• Colors and Lines sets the fill behind the cells and the line around the table.
• Size sets the table's height, width, and rotation. Check Lock aspect ratio to keep the table's proportions when you drag a corner handle of the table.
• Layout sets where the table sits on the page and how text wraps around it.
• Cell Properties sets the vertical alignment, the four margins, and Rotate text by 90° (the same as Text Direction). They apply to the selected cells, the cell you are in, or every cell when the whole table is selected. Only the settings you change are applied.
• Alt Text describes the table for people who cannot see it.

Related

• The Table tabs
• Format text
• Bullets, numbering, and tabs