Creating Tables

Tables are a useful way to organize and present large amounts of information, for example:

• Technical, financial, or statistical reports.
• Product catalogs showing prices and characteristics.
• Lists of names with address and other information.

Tables can also be used to create more complex layouts in a page and position and align text and graphics.

What is a table

In the following image an example table is shown. A table consists of rows and columns. Usually the first row contains a header with the names of the columns. Each row or column contains cells where we insert the table data (text or graphics).

Before you insert a table into a document, it helps to have an estimate of the number of rows and columns required.  A row is a horizontal series of cells, while a column is a vertical series.

Inserting a new table

Quick insert

1. To insert a new table, position the cursor where you want the table to appear
2. Click the Insert Table icon on the Standard toolbar
3. Select the number of rows and columns you require

Using the Insert Table Dialog

If you click on the More Options button you can specify more properties for the new table

Heading. Select this option if the first row of the table contains the named of the columns and not actual data. This makes the first row to be a formatted as a heading

Repeat Heading Rows on new pages. Makes the heading row to appear in every page if the table is large enough.

Don’t split table over pages. Prevents the table from spanning more than one page.

Border. Surrounds each cell of the table with a border.

Create a table from formatted text

You can create a table from plain text by using the Text to Table tool. The text to be converted must contain characters to indicate column separators. Paragraph marks, indicate the end of a table row.

For the example the text below separates columns with commas (,) and rows with paragraphs.

Name, City, Age
George, Syros, 33
Nick, Athens, 22
Elena, Paris, 19

Select the text and choose the Table > Covert > Text to Table menu command.

When the Convert Text to Table dialog appears we set commas as separator

And the resulting table: