Tables are used when you want to lay out figures or text in a regular fashion. This may be useful in may situations apart from the most obvious ones such as columns of figures or lists of names. You might, for example, want to put addresses on a page like this:
|
Your address |
Mr. C.D.Jones |
Typically you will not need to have borders around tables and cells used for addresses. We could have used three columns and put an image in the middle one. You may choose to use borders in other situations.
To create a table click the table button and drag the mouse across the rows and columns to the layout you require. You can add or delete rows and columns later. Click in a table cell and type as normal. The text will wrap to the next line if necessary. When you press Enter you start a new line in the cell. To move to the next cell press the Tab key or point and click with the mouse. Cells on a row expand to the depth of the cell with the most lines. Be sure to delete any unused lines which you created by pressing Enter.
Tables are so important they have a whole menu to themselves. The Insert/Table item gives you either plain and simple tables like the button or a Wizard which gives you complex designs you never thought possible. When the cursor is somewhere inside a table the rulers change to show the current row and column sizes.
You can change the width of a column by dragging its margin in the ruler and you can change individual cell widths by dragging the cell border. You can format text within each cell to be different to the other cells, changing the character settings like the font and the size or the paragraph settings like the justification or the indents.
To select a cell click and drag within it or point inside it until you see an arrow and then click. To select one or more rows point on the left side of the table and drag the arrow down as far you need. To select one or more columns point just above the top row until you see a small black arrow pointing down and then click and drag.
Position the cursor in the row underneath where you want to insert the new one and then choose Table/Insert Row. To insert a column select the column to the right of where you want the new column and then choose Table/Insert Column. To delete a column or row select it and then choose Table/Delete Column/Row.
You can split any cell into two parts on the vertical or horizontal axis. This may be useful if one of your cells contains material which splits into two parts.
This works in the way you would expect by now. You first select the table rows or columns you want to format and then either click on the Border tool in the Formatting toolbar or choose Format/Borders and Shading. The Border Tool opens a small window with ten border options. There is an Autoformat option in the Table menu if you cannot decide how to do it yourself.
You can sort your table data into alphabetic or numeric order by selecting it and then choosing Table/Sort.
The Newsletter Wizard provides an easy way to set up a page with columns and graphics in frames but in many cases it is better to do it yourself from scratch. When setting up a complex page with fancy headings, columns and pictures it is best to sketch out your design with paper and pencil first so that you know what you are working towards. Next, type out your words without formatting them in any way, no headings, no styles, no columns or pictures. You should not let the layout get in the way of your writing; there is plenty of time to arrange the words in different ways and to edit what you have written when you have typed the first draft.
There are two things you need to do to put text in columns. One is to define the sections of your text which will have multiple columns; use Insert/Break for this. There are 6 types of break available and the one you will most likely want is ‘section/continuous’. The design feature you are most likely to want is to mix text in two or more columns with headings which stretch across all the whole page. To do this you put section/continuous breaks before and after your headings and format the number of columns you want in each section. The second thing to do is to select the number of columns by either clicking on the column button in the Standard toolbar or by selecting Format/Columns.
With complex layouts involving columns and pictures you will need to have the text flow around the pictures to provide continuity and a pleasing effect. You learned how to achieve this earlier with Insert/Picture and Format/Picture (or Object or Text Box, the principles are the same).
Use Normal view to see the section breaks as you enter them and Layout view to see the effects of your column choices.
A finishing touch for pages with DTP-like features - columns, graphics with text flowing around them, pull-out quotes, banner headlines, etc. - is a ‘drop cap’, that is an initial capital letter which is much larger than the surrounding text and which drops into it. You will see many variations on this in modern magazines with some designs taking up to a whole page for the starting letter of an article. Does it make it easier to read and understand or does it show that the writer has little to say?
Make a personal letter heading with three parts: your name and position (imaginary?) on the left, a crest in the middle and the school name (or other organisation) on the right. Save it as a template.
Create a document which contains a table which contains information such as :
Add a header with your name on the right and a footer with the page number on the bottom.