How to Create a Complex Table in Microsoft Word

When you need more than a simple table or if you're a hands-on type of person, Word provides the tools to draw the table you want. These instructions are for Word 97 or 98.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Microsoft Word

1. Go to the Table menu and select Draw Table. The Tables and Borders window opens.

2. Select the line style and line weight (the width of the line).

3. Select the border color.

4. Select the type of border you want.

5. Click the Draw tool (the pencil).

6. Point to the area on your page where the upper-left corner of your table will be located.

7. Drag to create the table. Let go of the mouse button when the table's outline matches the size you want the table to be.

8. Create columns by pointing to the top line of the table and dragging downward.

9. Create rows by pointing to the left vertical line of the table and dragging horizontally.

Tips & Warnings

• To see a description of a table tool, "hover" over it with the mouse pointer.
• After you have drawn the table, you can use the table tools to merge or split cells; position text at the top, center or bottom of each cell; and distribute rows and columns evenly.
• You can also change text direction, sort contents in ascending or descending order, and use the Table AutoFormat menu, as well as use AutoSum to automatically add numbers in columns.

[tmsramkumar]

on 10/19/2008 how to find a cell border in a table by using macro

on 12/19/2005 The thought of placing my cursor in over 500 separate cells, dropping down or heading up (depending on where your fill button is) choosing the fill button, choosing the shade I want to use/change and doing it over and over and over makes me want to hit myself over with a hammer for fun.

The best I could come up with to make it a bit faster is to create a macro that allows you to tab from cell to cell and use the F12 key (with F-Lock ?locked) to shade the cells. This way you are using the tab key and the F12 key (I never use it for the print command) rather than the mouse cursor and the dropping down of menus and choosing colors.

Here is the macro I use:
--------------------------------------------------------
Sub shading()
'
' shading Macro
' Macro recorded 12/15/2005 by Carol Parent
'
With Selection.Cells.shading
.Texture = wdTextureNone
.ForegroundPatternColor = wdColorAutomatic
.BackgroundPatternColor = wdColorGray25
End With
With Options
.DefaultBorderLineStyle = wdLineStyleSingle
.DefaultBorderLineWidth = wdLineWidth100pt
.DefaultBorderColor = wdColorAutomatic
End With
End Sub
---------------------------------------
Now obviously you can choose any keyboard key you wish to assign to it or just keep it as a button in a tool bar. You can also change the color I used from gray 25% to whatever color you would like. And if you wish you can record your own very easily.