Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
using regular text to compose your
documents is fine in most cases but for
something that requires more
organization you might want to try a
table this will let you enter your text
in columns and rows instead of lines or
paragraphs to create a new table just go
to insert table then mouse over the grid
to select the number of cells you want
my tables going to be pretty big six
columns by six rows now click and the
table appears in your document where you
can start entering your information if
you already have some of your
information listed don't worry you don't
have to start from scratch
take this version for example the
schedules kind of hard to read in its
current format but we can easily convert
it to a table in just a couple steps
start by selecting your text then go to
the insert tab and click table now click
convert text to table and choose one of
the options here for separating your
text this is how word knows what to put
in each column my text is separated by
tabs in this example but paragraphs
commas and other symbols will also work
when you're ready click OK and the text
will appear in a table to enter
information just click the cell you want
you can also use the arrow keys on your
keyboard to navigate to insert a column
or row hover outside the table over one
of the cell dividers notice the plus
sign that appears all you have to do is
click + word will add a column or row in
that location deleting columns and rows
is just as easy first select a cell in
the range you want to delete then right
click and choose delete cells from the
menu in this example I'm going to select
delete entire row then click OK so this
pretty good I think I'm ready to add
some formatting to make the table easier
to read and also give it some color for
that you'll find everything you need on
the design tab or the Layout tab which
appear anytime you have your cursor in
your table under design you'll find a
wide range of table styles to choose
from which you can mouse over for a
preview for the full list click the
drop-down arrow in the corner how about
this one once you've chosen a style you
can customize the way it's laid out
using the table style options here for
example you can decide whether or not to
use special formatting on the first
column or the header row these will all
have a different effect depending on the
table style you've chosen so you might
need to experiment to get the look you
want you may have noticed that this
table has a border between most of the
cells to add or change the border just
select the cells you want to modify then
look to the borders group here you can
select a line style line weight and also
a color for your border when you're
ready click the drop-down arrow under
the borders command then choose where
you want the border to go I want mine
around the outside of these two cells
you can make further modifications to
things like the size and layout of your
table by going to the Layout tab the
first thing I'd like to do here is make
the table a little bigger overall I'll
start by placing my cursor in the bottom
row and then dragging the border to the
size I want when you're ready click the
distribute rows command and the rows
will readjust so they're all the same
size again next I'm going to select the
entire table and then change the text
alignment using the options in the
alignment group
I think centered looks the best finally
I'd like to combine these two cells into
one also known as merging this option is
useful if your table has data that spans
several different columns or rows just
make sure your cells are selected then
click the merge cells command on the
Layout tab
the Layout tab gives you many ways to
customize your table so it works for you
and the information you want to display
there is still lots of other options to
explore so make sure you give them a try
on your own
you