The Basics Of Creating/Inserting/Drawing A Table

Tables - Cell And Word Alignment - Coloured Backgrounds

In the next three sections I am going to teach you about Tables and Cells (Empty Boxes to you and me), so that you can align words better and make better stationery. Tables, and more importantly their cells, are mainly used for text alignment, object alignment (such as Image alignment) and to create stationery where boxes are needed (such as in an invoice).

A table can make a big difference to your stationery (i.e. Invoice) by making it look more professional, but don't think a table is purely for invoice creation because it's not. I'm only mentioning, and exampling, the invoice here because it makes a good example of table usage.

Before I show you how to create a table I will first explain the basics of cells, so begin by clicking on the INSERT Tab (window) and then on the TABLE menu button to reveal the menu items (table options).

Fig 1.0  Click on the INSERT Tab (window) to continue




Fig 1.1  Click on the TABLE menu button to reveal the menu items (table options)

The TABLE menu button is a mixture of a drop-down menu and an options/tools menu because, in this case, it displays standard menu items such as INSERT TABLE and DRAW TABLE as well as displaying a tool/option (the Insert Table grid) that allows you to specify how many cells you want to create inside your table.

The job of the Insert Table grid is to highlight the cells (boxes) as you hovered over them with the mouse pointer. So in the example below I am hovering over 15 Cells (boxes) - 3 Cells across by 5 Cells down. The cells going across/horizontal are known as Columns and the cells going down/vertical are known as Rows, with the columns usually filled in with heading/titles such as Name, Address, Phone, etc and the rows filled in with data/information such as John Cairns, 23 Oakdale Drive, etc. The cells collectively are known as a Table Of Cells, but commonly called a Table.

The table, of cells, is not created until you click on the last cell in your highlighted selection. So at the moment my 15 cells are only being previewed on the page. If I move the mouse pointer away from (off) the Insert Table grid the table itself (the preview) will disappear from the page. So for this next example hover over the same 15 cells as me (below) and then click on the last cell in that highlighted selection.

Fig 1.2  Hover the mouse pointer over the cells and then click on the last cell to create the table of cells

When the table, of cells, is created its spacing and so on will need adjusting, which is quite normal; after all microsoft office does not know how large you want the cells or what information you are going to put inside each cell, if any, for example. Hence why it gives you cell alignment/formatting tools.

Fig 1.3  The table of cells has been created - You can now type text inside each cell, if need be.

Once the table, of cells, has been created you can then start typing text into each cell, if need be, by clicking inside a cell and typing something. Or you can click inside the first cell, type some text and then press the TAB (Tabulation) keyboard key to get inside the next cell - Pressing the TAB keyboard key goes through all the cells, one by one, in other words. In the above example I have just typed something in certain cells to demonstrate the just said.

ADJUSTING  CELL  SIZE

When you have decided what your table of cells is to be used for (i.e. a Contacts List) and typed some information into the relevant cells, normally the next thing to do is resize the cells so that certain information fits onto one or two lines only. The details in Fig 1.3 above, for example, could have their cells resized so that the address information fits on fewer lines.

Resizing is done by dragging a table's line (cell separating line / border line) either left, right, up or down (if applicable). For example. To move the table's second vertical line leftwards, the line that separates the Name and Address cells, you click on that second vertical line and hold down the click (left mouse button) while you then move the mouse pointer leftwards. So you are dragging that second vertical line in other words.

Once you are happy with the table line's new position you then let go of (release) the left mouse button. This will then shorten the width of the Name cells, but also widen the width of the Address cells.

Fig 1.4  Click on the table line that separates the Name and Address cells and hold down the click.....




Fig 1.5  .....as you then move (drag) the mouse pointer leftwards - Release the click when in new position

When you first click on the second vertical table line the microsoft word 2010 ruler might appear (Fig 1.4 above) if it hasn't already been switched on via the VIEW Tab (window). The ruler temporarily appearing, when it's switched off by default (normal behaviour), is quite normal and gives you some idea of margin and space between cells; which can be ignored for this example as you should be using your human eye to roughly create space (width) between cells. Saying this, if you want to use the ruler as a gauge you can do.

Another thing that appears, when you hover the mouse pointer over the table of cells, is the Table Anchor; the cross symbol in the top-left corner of the table. It allows you to drag the whole table, of cells, around the page. Reposition the table in other words. Again, this is something you can ignore for now. I am only mentioning the ruler and anchor here just in case you are wondering what they are/do.

Getting back to the example. When you drag the second vertical table line into a new position and then release the left mouse button, the width allocated to the Name cells will have shortened but will still have enough width (space) to clearly view medium to long-ish names whereas the width allocated to the Address cells will have grown. This is visible by the way the addresses themselves have been refitted to fit on one less text line - The first address is now on one text line only and the second address is now on three text lines instead of four.

Fig 1.6  The width of the Name cells are now shorter and the width of the Address cells are now wider

If you then resize the Address and Phone cells by dragging the vertical table line that separates them rightwards, the third vertical table line in this example, you can then create more width (space) for the Address cells and therefore make the second address fit on two text lines only.

Fig 1.7  Click on the table line that separates the Address and Phone cells and hold down the click.....




Fig 1.8  .....as you then move (drag) the mouse pointer rightwards - Release the click when in new position




Fig 1.9  The width of the Phone cells are now shorter and the width of the Address cells are now wider

The above also applies to moving (dragging) horizontal table lines. For example. If you drag the fourth horizontal table line downwards, the line that separates the two sets of Name, Address and Phone details, you can make the cells storing the first set of Name, Address and Phone details higher.

Fig 1.10  Click on the table line that separates the two sets of Name, Address and Phone details.....




Fig 1.11  .....and then drag the table line downwards to make the first set of details (cells) higher.




Fig 1.12  The height of the first set of Name, Address and Phone details (cells) are now higher

Now you know about, horizontal and vertical, table lines experiment with them by dragging them around in order to fully appreciate how they can benefit your project.

ADJUSTING  CELL  SPACING

Sometimes you may have a scenario whereby you need to make all the cells of equal width and/or height, in which case you would use the DISTRIBUTE ROWS and DISTRIBUTE COLUMNS buttons. On the other hand sometimes you might only want to make certain cells have an equal width and/or height, in which case you would use the DISTRIBUTE ROWS button and/or the DISTRIBUTE COLUMNS button.

In the example below for example I've made all the cells have an equal height by using the DISTRIBUTE ROWS button. This was done by first highlighting all of the cells, regardless of their current unequal heights, and then clicking on the DISTRIBUTE ROWS button which is located on the LAYOUT Tab (window). So after highlighting the cells I had to click on the LAYOUT Tab and then click on the DISTRIBUTE ROWS button.

Fig 1.13  Highlight all of the cells - Click on the LAYOUT Tab - Click on the DISTRIBUTE ROWS button




Fig 1.14  All of the cells (rows) now have the same height but their widths (column cells) are unequal

With the above example I did not need to highlight all of the cells in order to make them all of equal height, I could of highlighted some column cells instead (below). This is because the DISTRIBUTE ROWS function tells microsoft word to make the rows of any highlighted cells equal in height. So in the example below the rows that belong to the five cells of the highlighted Phone column have been made of equal height.

Fig 1.15  The rows of the five highlighted cells have been set to an equal height

Just to clarify the just said; If I only highlight the last two cells in the Phone column, only the rows belonging to those two highlighted cells will have their heights set to an equal height. To the height of the tallest cell, out of the two cells, which in this case is the first cell's height.

Fig 1.16  The rows of the two highlighted cells have been set to an equal height

Going back to when all the cell rows were of equal height (Fig 1.15 above); If I now highlight all of the cells and then click on the DISTRIBUTE COLUMNS button, all of the cells (columns) will have an equal width but then their row (cell) heights will be adjusted accordingly because of the way their details have to be squeezed into the width of the cells.

Fig 1.17  All of the column cells now have an equal width but not an equal row height

As you can see; the second address details prevented all of the cells from having an equal row height. The three columns (Name, Address and Phone) do have an equal cell (column) width though. Here is another example, based on all the cells having equal height (as shown in Fig 1.15 above).

Fig 1.18  All of the cells have an equal height but not an equal column width

In the above example I've highlighted the Name and Address columns only with three rows highlighted. Just to clarify; If I would of highlighted the Name and Address columns only that would mean only two columns were highlighted with one row. However, because I then highlighted two more rows this means there are now two columns highlighted and three rows highlighted. Anyway! After highlighting the six cells I then clicked on the DISTRIBUTE COLUMNS button which tells microsoft word to only adjust the width of the two highlighted columns (Name and Address). The height of those six highlighted cells remain untouched.

In the above example this has meant that only the three vertical table lines that separate the two columns have been adjusted. The other vertical table lines that separate the unhighlighted columns are left untouched. Hence why you get that partitioned (sectioned/portioned) look. And it's this partitioning of cell widths and heights that make a table perfect for invoices and other business stationery for example.

In the next section I will show you how to align and colour text within certain cells and how to create an invoice from a table.