How To Design Tables in Microsoft Word
There are two ways to
design a table in Microsoft Word: the old-fashioned way and the new
point-and-click way that began with the 2007 release of Word. Knowing
how to do both is your best bet for meeting all of your tabular needs.
First, the old fashioned way.
It is best to already have text above and below the area where the table will appear. Activate your cursor in the estimated area of your document where you wish the table to appear. You should see your cursor blinking.
Next, click on the Insert tab and then on the Table drop down arrow. A screen will appear that allows you to select the number of columns and rows for your table. This example table will contain three columns and seven rows.
Remember that you might want to use your top row for a table title area, leaving you only six rows for data. So factor that into your needs.
Table Defaults
By default, Word will insert a table that fills 100% of the page's text area, from the left to right margin. At this point, you can make the table more narrow by clicking and dragging the column borders. Here's the trick for resizing your table and then letting Word ensure that column widths are equal.
Begin by activating your cursor in the table Then place your pointer over a column border until the pointer turns into a
line with left and right arrows. Drag to the left or right to begin to resize. Do the same with each column divider until you have the table width you desire and columns are of approximately equal width as judged by your eye. Now, select the table again and go up to Table Tools > Then Layout. Click on Distrubute Columns and you will see Word equalize the column widths. Remember--Trust Word, not your eyes to give your table consistent widths for columns and rows.
Let's now merge the cells of the top row to provide an area for a table title. Click and drag to select the three cells of the top row. Then, under Table Tools, and the Layout Ribbon, look for Merge Cells. Click. You now have a single blank row for your table's title.
You
will probably want your title centered, so, while still on the Layout
ribbon, go to the Alignment tool set. These
tools determine how the text in a cell is aligned horizontally (left,
right, center) and vertically (top, bottom, middle). You
probably
want your title centered horizontally and vertically, so choose the
middle option. Type in your table title and style it. A few things to
keep in mind:
- the font used for table text is usually different than the font used for regular body copy. Because text in a table is often smaller, it is recommended that you choose a san serif or smooth font--one that doesn't have angles and pointers like Times New Roman.
- Highlight your Title and choose a sans serif smooth
font that appeals to you. Arial is the most common smooth font.
So to give your table some distinction, experiment with other smooth fonts such as Adobe Gothic, Gill Sans, Calibri,
Segoe UI, etc. - Another common design feature is to "knock out" or
reverse what is black and white. Click in the title row, Then select
the Design ribbon. You will see the paint bucket for Shading the background color of the cell you've selected. Notice
that when I select black, Word knows to automatically knock out or reverse the type color. You can also manually
change the type color to whatever you prefer. Black and white is a strong contrrast, so is black and yellow. Colors
used in a design always depend on your audience's tastes. If you ever unsure, go with what is simplest and most
conservative.
As you enter text and data into the cells of your table, you will notice that the cells automatically adjust. A few things to keep in mind at this stage:
- Once again, you should prefer a smooth or sans serif font for the text inside your table. A smooth font will be easie to read and will contrast with the font used for body copy.
- Next, the size of
the type in your table is usually smaller than the size of the type in
the body of the document. Forexample, this document has 13-point type
in the body. So it's a good idea to make type size in the table one to
two point sizes different. 11-point type looks good in Calibri.
Now
that some text is in the table, let's talk about cell margins. Not
leaving adequate cell margins is perhaps the most
common mistake made when designing a table. As you can see, as I add
more text to the table, it begins to resemble
alphabet soup without adequate margins in the cells.
So one thing we want to do is select the entire table with our
selection tool. Then, under Table Tools and Layout, click
on the Cell Margins tool. Here you can add some extra space so that the
text within each cell is more distinct. One
problem you see immediately is that the cell margins for top and bottom
are zero by default. Start by making them the
same as the left and right margins. 0.08. and click OK..
Now
notice that the left column consists of a single word only, each word
is a heading for itsrow. Let's select these
three words and align them in a way that signals their role as
headings. Select the entire left column, now return to the
alignment tools up top. Horizontal left and vertical center is probably
what we want.
You now have the start of a professional looking table. A few advanced considerations:
- Once all of your text is in, experiment with column width to see if you can make your table more readable. The fewerlines that are in a cell, the easier it is to read them. So, for example, in this table, since the left column is only oneword, I can narrow that column and give more room for the other columns with extended text.
- Don't forget to use Distribute Columns after you've done your adjustments.
- Another option is to use shading to help distinguish the columns. Again, since the left column is a set of headings, I could give that column its own shading to signal that role. I select the column, then go to Design and the shading drop down menu. A very light grey sets this column off without being too distracting.
Automatic Design Templates
The first step is to insert a table using one of two methods we described above. Once again, we will go with three columns and seven rows. Next, select the table with the table selection tool, and go up top to Table Tools, and the Design Ribbon.
By clicking on the dropdown arrow, you see the multitude of design options. Simply select one and it will automatically change the design of the table.
Once you have a design that you like, simply follow the steps above to add text and data, to tweak the table's cell margins, to add and delete columns and rows, and so forth.
Finally, to move this or any Table, click on the table selection tool and drag the table to whereever you want it on the page. Text will wrap automatically.
Good luck with your Microsoft Word table!