8 tips for perfect table formatting on Microsoft Word

You cannot create a beautiful Word document without using the essential formatting of tables. In Microsoft Word, tables are an essential formatting tool. Thankfully, Microsoft Office allows you to easily create and format basic tables in Word, on versions of Office 365 , Word 2019 , Word 2016 and Word 2013.

The following article will guide you the 8 most basic tips when working with tables on Microsoft Word. Please stay tuned!

1. How to create a table in Word

This is a basic but necessary step for users who have never worked with tables in Microsoft Word. With the new intuitive interface on Word 2016, Word 2019 and Office 365, creating a table is simple: on the Ribbon go to Insert > Table > Insert Table .

Insert table in Microsoft Word

Here you can choose the number of rows and columns corresponding to your created table data. You can select some existing table templates in the Quick Table section , then edit the column / row names corresponding to your required data.

Use Quick Table to insert tables

One very quick way to create multi-line tables in Word is the Insert Control feature . You can quickly create a new row or column with just one click. Simply put your mouse on top of the line / border separating columns of lines / columns, 1 blue bar attached sign ⊕ will appear allowing you to insert into the middle of the line / column available.

Add rows / columns in Word table

In addition, the fastest way to create a new line is to work on the last cell of the last row in the table, then press Tab on the keyboard to create a new row at the bottom of the table.

Press Tab to add new rows to the table in Word 2019

When you want to move a row up or down, simply place your cursor in the line to move, press Alt + Shift + Up / down arrow to move the whole line. Move multiple rows by selecting all the rows and then pressing the key combination to move.

Move lines in Word tables with the key

Reposition the table on the page

Right-click on the table and select Table Properties ... , the Properties dialog box appears that will help you control details about the size, alignment, and indent of the table.

By default, the table in Word is aligned on the left and there is no text adjacent to it ( Text Wrapping = None ). If you want the center table to align, in the Alignment section select Center .

Align the table to the middle in the Table Properties dialog box

If you want to place the table to the left (or right) and the other side is text, you can select the Text Wrapping section to Around then click the Positioning button ... to adjust the space around the table.

The text format overflows to the side of the table in the Text Wrapping section

Select Move with text if the text is directly related to the table data. The table will be vertically aligned with the text data surrounding it. If the map data applies to the entire document, you do not need to select this option.

2. Use a ruler to fine-tune the column width

Aligning the column line size correctly is an installation art that is not easy. But in Word 2019, you can do this very easily, because you can clearly see the size of the rows / columns on the ruler.

Before starting this section of course you have to turn on the ruler by going to View and selecting Ruler .

Enable ruler in Microsoft Word

Hover the mouse over the line / column border, when the cursor appears 2-way arrow, click the border, hold the Alt key on the keyboard and drag it left and right according to the desired size.

Drag column and row widths in the Word table

3. Convert the text into a tabular format and vice versa

The data presented on the table looks very intuitive and easy to understand. If you've accidentally made data but haven't put it into a table yet, fortunately Word has the ability to convert text data into the table as long as it has the same structural format. The structure format is the same here, I mean, each data on a row will be converted into a row in the table, each column data will be based on a common common factor. It is verbose, but you can see the following:

Step 1 : Highlight the data you want to put into the table, go to Insert > Table > Convert Text to Table

Convert Text data to a table

Step 2 : In the table Convert Text to Table you need to choose the following parameters:

• Table size : choose the number of rows and columns
• AutoFit behavior : specify the width of columns and tables.
• Separate text at : this is the part you have to specify how Word will split the data into columns, specifically as follows:
  • Paragraphs : separate columns by independent paragraphs
  • Commas : separate columns with commas
  • Tabs : Separate columns by Tabs
  • Other : separate columns with other specific characters such as dashes (-), semicolons (;), question marks (?) ... or any other marks that your data uses.

Convert text data to tabular form

In the example above I used a comma, so I will choose Commas :

Convert tables into text

If your table is unusable in some cases, you can switch back to the text by doing the following:

Select the entire board by clicking the 4-way arrow button in the upper left corner of the board.

Convert table data to text

On the Ribbon select Table Tools > Layout , under Data > Convert to Text . The conversion table appears, and you can choose the column data separator option:

Select data separator option

4. Autofill line / column numbers

Microsoft Excel is quite simple to fill in columns automatically, but Word needs some tips, but it is not too complicated.

Create a row or column you want to number, or you can always use existing data. Highlight the number of cells you want to number and then go to Home > Paragraph > Numbering

Enter the order in the Word table

Kết quả sẽ như sau:

Số thứ tự tự động trên bảng Word

5. Đóng băng kích thước bảng

Thông thường bảng biểu trong Word sẽ tự thay đổi kích thước tùy thuộc vào dữ liệu trong bảng. Tuy nhiên nếu bạn cảm thấy điều này quá phiền hà thì có thể đóng băng kích thước các ô trong bảng.

Để chỉ định kích thước chính xác cho các ô, bạn cần vào phần Thuộc tính bảng (chuột phải vào bảng, chọn Table Properties), trong phần Row, tích chọn Specify height và nhập chính xác chiều cao của dòng vào, trong phần Row height is hãy chọn Exactly.

Xác định chiều cao và độ rộng chính xác của ô

Also in the Table Properties window , switch to the Table tab , select Options ... and uncheck Automatically resize to fit contents .

Set to not automatically expand cells according to the data in the table

Click OK 2 times to exit the Table Properties dialog box .

With this setting you will also solve the problem of inserting images that the cell does not expand to contain the image. If the image is larger than the available space in the cell, the image will be cropped to fit the cell.

6. Change rows into columns in a table

There are many situations where you have to change rows into columns (or vice versa) - for example, a situation where the number of columns exceeds the width of the page. However, Word is not ready to support this feature, you can only handle this through Excel . How to do the following:

• Copy the whole table in Word.
• Open a new Excel file, paste the table.
• Copy the pasted table inside Excel
• Right-click a new cell, in the Paste Options section select Transpose (T) .
• Copy the table after converted into Excel to paste into Word again.

7. Paste perfect Excel tables into Gmail

By default, Gmail does not retain spreadsheet formats when you paste directly from Microsoft Excel into the email body. To email table data without having to attach a separate file, use Microsoft Word as an intermediary to help you do this.

The operation is very simple, select and copy the Excel table and paste it into the Word document in its original format. Then continue copying that table from Word into Gmail . It is done! You may need to tweak the table a bit, but basically all formats are retained.

8. Reuse the board to save time and effort

You can save a lot of time by reusing tables once created. Simply save an empty table with column / row headers intact and just insert new data. How to do it is very simple offline!

Select the table to save the structure, go to Insert > in Text select Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery ...

Save the format and table structure in Word

Enter the name of the table structure and click OK .

Enter the reminiscent name of the table format

Once saved, you can call this table structure very quickly in the Quick Parts section :

Recall the saved table format in Word

As for the tables in Word, there will be a lot of topics to exploit and this is just one of the pretty good tips that I find necessary to share with you. If you have any better skills, please share immediately with us and other users on Download.com.vn offline!