Tables in Microsoft Word
Tables are used in Word to help users organize content and allow for easy reorganization of the content. They can be very plain or use color, special borders, shading, or no borders at all, to make them look nice. Tables also enable users to easily move the content of the table within the document. Today's tip covers the basics of MS Word Tables.
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Why use a Table?
As mentioned in the introduction there are many reasons why using a table can be helpful in organizing information in a Word document. Here are three examples; the first is some information organized using tabs, the second using a table, but hiding the borders, so you can't see the table, and the third is a table using one of the table formatting styles available in Word.
The advantage to using a table vs using tabs as shown above, is that we can add a column to the table and easily add an address. In the version without the table formatting (top image) we would have to find the insertion point, add the address, and line up the other columns again. This usually needs to be done for each row in the table. We can also easily center items in a column when using a table, whereas when using tabs that gets very tricky with many fonts.
Creating Tables
In MS Word there are two buttons on the Formatting toolbar to use in creating tables. One button is used to Draw a table
and the other to Insert a table.
There is also a Tables and Borders toolbar:
By clicking on the Insert a table button and then dragging the mouse down and to the right, the user can select the number of rows and columns needed for the table. The process looks like this:
The table looks like this:
The other option for creating a table is to click on Table>Insert>Table. Notice this is also the path to add rows and columns to an existing table.
Adding Content to Tables
To add content to a table, simply type the content into the cells. If the content is longer than the cell is wide, it will wrap. If the table is created using the second option, that is clicking on Table>Insert>Table a dialog box appears asking the user to define the table size and also how the columns will behave. This is called AutoFit behavior. AutoFit allows the user to set the column width as fixed, autoFit to contents or autoFit to window. Users can also set the Table Style here. This will be discussed in one of the sections that follows.
To move from one cell to another the arrow keys or the Tab key can be used. If the user is in the bottom-right cell and uses the Tab key, it will add another row to the table. This is really handy!!
The Table Menu
The Table Menu provides many options for customizing a table. It has three sub menus - Insert, Delete, and Select. See the image below for an example of the options available on those sub-menus. It is possible to Merge cells or Split Cells. The Table AutoFormat tool I used to create the colorful table in the image above is also on this menu.
Here is an example of a table with both split and merged cells.
Table Insert Menu
The Table>Insert menu allows the user to nest a table within a table or insert columns, rows or cells to the selected table. The Table>Delete menu allows the user to delete a table, columns, rows, or cells. The Table Select menu allows a users to select the whole table, column(s), row(s), or cell(s) in order to edit them in some way.
Adjusting Table, Row, Column, and Cell Size
In working with tables, users often find it necessary to resize table columns, rows, and cells. This can be done by using the AutoFit option on the Table menu. Note there are several settings related to fit and distribution of rows and columns
Another option is to use the Move Handle to move the table or use the Vertical or Horizontal Gridlines to resize parts of the table. When working with the gridlines, hover the mouse over the gridline you want to adjust. When you see the double arrow, 
then click and drag the line to resize the row, column, or cell.
Table Styles
MS Word has a collection of preset Table Styles. I used one of them in the first image at the beginning of this tip. It is the AutoFormat Table example. To access the collection, go to Table>Table AutoFormat...This will bring up the Table AutoFormat dialogue box.
Users have several options for table styles. By clicking on the first style and then using the down-arrow, to move through the list of styles, the user is provided with a preview of each table style. There are also settings for heading rows, first column, last row and last column. These should be checked if your table us using any of those rows or columns for headings or totals.
If one of the styles is close, but the color of the shading or the font isn't exactly right, select the table and follow the steps in the next section to change the color, font, or shading.
Borders and Shading
Here is what Table Grid 8 looks like.
I want to change the shading and lines in the table from Blue to Green and change the text from Ariel to Tahoma. The steps are as follows:
Select the table by so the curser is within the table. Then click on Format>Borders and Shading. The following dialogue box will appear:
Change the color to Green and then in the Setting: area select the All option to change all the lines in the table to Green.
To change shading in the top row to Green select the top row of the table and then click on Format>Borders and Shading and click on the Shading tab.
Select the new color, Green and then click on OK. The color of the shading in the top row of the table should now be green.
Finally, to change the font, click on the Move Handle to select the whole table. Click on Format>Font and select a new font. In this case the new font selected is Tahoma. Here is the revised table.
Remember that in MS Word, like in most MS programs, many of these steps used in working with tables can be done in several different ways.
MS Word does have the ability to perform some simple functions on a group of numbers. For example, the totals in the table above were calculated using the Table>Formula tool. The video link below will show a short video of screenshots that demonstrate how to create, format and use the formula function in MS Word.