Project 4: Report
Table - Format

 Title: Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101
Did you want: Working with Words: Word 2007,2010,2013,2016 or españolIcon: Change web

Making your table easy to read and interesting to look at is what formatting is all about. You can color the table background. You can color the table's lines and set the line style and width. Of course, you can format the text in the table in all the normal ways, too.

The steps below will give you some practice in applying formatting. More importantly the steps will show you the consequences of formatting too soon.

When creating your own tables, take care that your formatting choices do not make your table's content too hard to read. The choices used below are not particularly good for reading! They were chosen to make it clear what happens when you move things around in a table, not for beauty or readability.

Getting your table to work well often means combining cells together, called merging. The steps below will show that splitting cells is not the same as reversing a merge.


Where you are:
JegsWorks > Lessons > Word97-2003

Before you start...

Project 1: Word BasicsTo subtopics

Project 2: Auto ToolsTo subtopics

Project 3: BrochureTo subtopics

Project 4: Report     
    MLA Guidelines
    Create ReportTo subtopics
    Tables Subtopics display
        Tables & Borders bar
        Table Tasks
    icon-footprintTable- Button 
    icon-footprintTable- Draw
    icon-footprintTable- Format
    Finish ReportTo subtopics
    Summary
    Quiz
    ExercisesTo subtopics 

    Search
    Glossary
Icon Step-by-Step 

Step-by-Step: Format a Table

  Icon Step-by-Step

What you will learn:

to format table text
to change table background
to move rows and columns
to merge cells
to split cells 

Start with: Class disk Icon- Word with blank document , table2.doc from preceding lesson

Format Table Text

  1. Table text formatted bold, size 16 pts.Select the whole table using the menu.
    Icon - Word 97  Table  |  Select table 
    Icon - Word 2000 Icon: Word 2002Icon: Word 2003  Table  |  Select  |  Table  or click on the Handle: Move Table Move Table handle.
     
  2. Change the font to Size = 16 pt. and Bold using the Formatting bar buttons.

Center Table & Text

You want to center the table horizontally on the page and also to center the text in each cell both horizontally and vertically inside the cell. That's three different kinds of centering!

  1. Center table on page:
    While the whole table is selected, click Button - Center the Center button on the Formatting toolbar. The whole table is centered horizontally on the page.

    New for 97 In earlier versions of Word this action would center the text inside each cell. 
     
  2. Center text in cell:  
    Button - alignment palette - Align CenterClick the Align Center button on the Tables and Borders bar. The cell text is centered both horizontally and vertically inside each cell.

    Button - Center Vertically in Word 97Icon - Word 97 This action is not as easy in Word 97. You must do the horizontal and vertical centering separately.

    • Click Button - Center Vertically the Center Vertically button on the Tables and Borders toolbar. The text moves down to the middle of each cell, but it is still over at the left edge of each cell.
    • Click out of the table to de-select it.
    • Drag from the top left cell to the bottom right cell to select the table contents, but do not include the end of row marks.
    • Click on the Button - Center Center button on the Formatting bar again. Now the text is in the middle of each cell both vertically and horizontally.

      Table - Centered on page, Table text centered in cell horizontally and vertically


Format Cells

You will now format the table cells with background color and you will change the color of the text. When you start moving rows and columns around later, you will be able to tell better what is going on because of the colors. We aren't after beauty here!

  1. Table - red background, yellow text - still selectedWhile all cells are selected, use the Tables and Border bar and the Formatting toolbar to format:
      Shading = Red
      Font Color = Yellow.

    While the cells are selected, the text is highlighted in the reverse color.


  2. Table - Lettered cells blue background, black textReformat all the cells that have letters with:
      Shading = Blue
      Font Color = Black.
    (You can't select all the lettered cells at once.)

  3. Table with E cell white on violetSelect the second cell in the middle row, which contain the letter E. Be careful to select the whole cell and not just the letter E.
     
  4. Reformat cell E with:
      Shading = Violet
      Font Color = White.

Move Row

It is better to do any moving before you start changing the formatting. Sometimes the formatting will go along with the cell, but sometimes it doesn't. You can make yourself a lot of work by doing things in the wrong order.

  1. Select the middle row. (Be sure to catch the end of row mark, too.)
     
  2. Cel A2 with select arrowMove the pointer over the first cell in the selected row, which contains the letter A, until the pointer changes to Pointer -Select shape . Yes, the direction of the arrow changes!
     
  3. Cel A1 with cursor at rightDrag up until the cursor shows in the first cell in the table (which contains a 1), then drop.
     

    Table - Row 2 moved up to topThe middle row (blue and violet backgrounds) moves up and becomes the first row. The formatting stayed with all the cells this time.


Move Column

  1. Column B selectedSelect the second column, which now has E in the top cell.
     
  2. Move the pointer over the cell containing an E until it changes to Pointer - Selection left shape the selection shape.
     
  3. Table after column moved (Word 2000)Cursor at end of row 1Drag to the right until the cursor shows beside the end-of-row mark for the first row and drop. The whole column moves to the right side of the table.

    The shading in the column changed to match the row. This is an example of why you should wait to format a table until all the rows and columns are set. Unexpected things can happen!  

    Icon - Word 97 You lost the vertical centering. Very strange!
    Restore the centering by clicking Button - Center Vertically  the Center Vertically button.

Merge Cells

  1. Table after merging cellsSelect the last column.
     
  2. Click on Button - Merge Cells the Merge Cells button in the Tables and Borders bar.

    The contents of all three cells become separate paragraphs in the combined cell. The cell background is the same as the top cell in the column, but the paragraphs kept their own text formatting. Is this getting complicated??

Split Cells

  1. While the column is still selected, click on Button - Split Cells the Split Cells button on the Tables and Borders bar.
     
  2. Dialog- Split CellsIn the Cells Split dialog, set:
    columns = 1
    rows = 3
    Merge cells before split: checked
     
  3. Click on OK to close the dialog.

    Table - after split cellsYou are back to three cells in the last column. But the text stayed in the top cell. So, Split Cells is not the same as Undoing the merge.

    Tip If you create more than one column with your Split, the cell contents are divided between the columns. Why not with rows??? I don't have a clue! 

     


Final Edit

  1. Document - table3.docOpen the Header and type your name, 2 spaces, the date, TAB, from the menu  Insert  |  Field  |  FileName , TAB, Word Project 4.
     
  2. Check Print Preview. Make corrections if needed.
     
  3. Class disk Save on your Class disk as  table3.doc .
    Full disk How to handle a full disk
     
  4. Print icon Print in black and white. How did your red and blue come out? How about the text? This illustrates the problem of colored illustrations printed in black and white.