Microsoft Office 2016 At Work For Dummies (2016)

Chapter 5

Working with Tables and Graphics in Word

In This Chapter

Creating tables

Selecting and resizing rows and columns

Adding and removing rows and columns

Applying borders and shading to table cells

Inserting a picture from a file

Changing a picture’s wrap setting

Moving and resizing a picture

Captioning and auto-numbering pictures

Tables help you present rows and columns of data in an orderly way. You can draw tables or create them by using a preset grid.

You can dress up Word documents with a variety of graphics. Graphics can make a document more interesting and can explain visual concepts more easily than text alone. You know the old saying … a picture is worth a thousand words. You can import pictures from online sources, use pictures from your collection, or create artwork inside of Word with drawing tools (which is beyond the scope of this chapter).

In this chapter, you learn how to insert and format tables and images and how to position and format pictures in a document. You also learn about the Caption feature in Word, which can caption and number images automatically.

Create tables

A table is a grid of rows and columns, somewhat like a spreadsheet. Each of the row-and-column intersections is a cell. You can type text into a cell as if it were a text box. Tables are useful for displaying information in multicolumn layouts, such as address lists and schedules. You may be surprised at all the uses you can find for tables in your documents!

To create a table in Word, you can either insert a table as a whole or draw one line by line. In most cases, if you want a standard-looking table (that is, one with equally sized rows and columns), your best bet is to insert it. If you want an unusual-looking table, such as with different numbers of columns in some rows, you may be better off drawing the table. You can also convert existing text to a table.

Insert a table

When you insert a table, you have to tell Word to start with a specific number of rows and columns. You can modify the table later to add or remove rows and columns as needed. Creating a table by specifying rows and columns works well when you want a table in which all of the rows and columns are the same width and height (or at least starting out that way).

There are two ways to create a table by specifying the rows and columns you want. Here’s the first way, which is quick and simple:

On the Insert tab, click the Table button. A menu appears that contains a grid of squares.

Drag the mouse across the grid to select the number of cells you want. For example, to create a table with three rows and three columns, drag across three squares across and three squares down, as in Figure 5-1.

3. Release the mouse button. The table is created.

Figure 5-1: Drag across the grid to select the size of the table to create.

And here’s the second way, which is a little more work but also enables you to specify some options:

On the Insert tab, click the Table button. A menu appears.

Click Insert Table. The Insert Table dialog box opens.

Enter a number of columns.

Enter a number of rows.

Choose how you want the table’s column width to be determined:

· Fixed column width makes the table as wide as possible given the document’s margin settings, and evenly distributes the available space among the columns.

· AutoFit to contents allows each table cell to expand as needed as you type text in it.

· AutoFit to window changes the size of the table as needed so the table is fully visible onscreen. This option is used when creating web pages and is not common in regular documents.

Click OK.

Figure 5-2: Select the Insert Table command from the menu.

Figure 5-3: Specify the table’s number of rows and columns and its AutoFit behavior.

Draw a table

Drawing a table is the best method when you need a table that has unusual row and column arrangement, such as a row that is broken into a different number of columns than other rows or a column that is much wider than the others. When you draw a table, you create each divider individually, so you have ultimate control.

To draw a table, follow these steps:

On the Insert tab, click the Table button. A menu appears.

Click Draw Table. The mouse pointer changes to a pencil.

Drag to draw a box that represents the outside of the table.

Drag to draw vertical and horizontal lines inside the box to create the rows and columns.

If you make a mistake in drawing a line, click Eraser and then click the line to erase. You can then click Draw Table to return to drawing mode. (See in Figure 5-7.)

On the Table Tools Layout tab, click Draw Table to turn off the feature, or press the Esc key.

Figure 5-4: Choose the Draw Table command.

Figure 5-5: Draw the outside of the table.

Figure 5-6: Draw the inner lines of the table.

Figure 5-7: Turn off the Draw Table feature.

Convert existing text to a table

If you already have some text, you can convert it to a table without having to retype it. The catch, though, is that the text must be delimited somehow. In other words, there must be some consistent way that one column is to be distinguished from another. For example, you might have some text in multiple tabbed columns, with a paragraph break indicating the end of each row, as in Figure 5-8. (I’ve turned on the display of hidden characters in Figure 5-8 so you can see where the tab stops and paragraph breaks are.) For best results, there should be the same number of potential columns in each row. The data in Figure 5-8 works because each line contains the same number of delimiter characters (tabs).

Figure 5-8: These paragraphs are delimited with tab stops, ready to be converted to a table.

To convert text to a table, follow these steps:

Select the text to be converted.

On the Insert tab, click Table.

Click Convert Text to Table.

Confirm the number of columns. Change the number if needed.

If the wrong number of columns is reported, you probably have an inconsistent number of delimiters in one or more of the rows. The best thing to do is click Cancel, check your delimiters, and then start over.

Change the AutoFit setting if desired. See “Insert a table” earlier in this chapter for an explanation of the options.

Choose the delimiter character if it is not already correctly selected.

Click OK. The text is converted to a table.

Figure 5-9: Choose Convert Text to Table.

Figure 5-10: Specify the options for the conversion.

Select cells, rows, and columns

Working with a table often involves selecting one or more cells, rows, or columns. Here are some of the many ways to do this:

· To select a single cell, do any of the following:

Triple-click the cell.

Click in the lower left corner of the cell.

Choose Layout, Select, Select Cell.

Click in the cell and then press Ctrl+Shift+Right arrow.

· To select a rectangular block of cells, do either of the following:

Drag across the cells with the mouse.

Click in the first cell, and then hold Shift and press arrow keys to extend the selection.

· To select a single row, do either of the following:

Click to the left of the row to be selected (outside the table). You’ll know you are in the right spot when the mouse pointer becomes a white arrow that points diagonally up and to the right. (This is different from the regular mouse pointer arrow, which points diagonally up and to the left.)

On the Layout tab, click Select, and then click Select Row.

· To select a single column, do either of the following:

Click above the column to be selected (outside the table). You’ll know you are in the right spot when the mouse pointer becomes a black down-pointing arrow.

On the Layout tab, click Select, and then click Select Column.

To select multiple rows, click to the left of the first row to be selected (outside the table) and then drag up or down.

To select multiple columns, click above the first column to be selected (outside the table) and then drag right or left.

· To select the entire table, do either of the following:

Click the table selector icon in the upper left corner of the table.

On the Layout tab, click Select, and then click Select Table.

Figure 5-11: Select a single cell.

Figure 5-12: Select a rectangular block of cells

Figure 5-13: Select a single row.

Figure 5-14: Select a single column.

Figure 5-15: Select multiple rows.

Figure 5-16: Select multiple columns.

Figure 5-17: Select the entire table.

Resize table rows and columns

Word handles row height automatically for you, so you usually don’t have to think about it. The row height changes as needed to accommodate the font size of the text in the cells of that row. Text in a cell wraps automatically to the next line when it runs out of room horizontally, so you can expect your table rows to expand in height as you type more text into them.

If you manually resize a row’s height, the ability to auto-resize to fit content is turned off for that row. Therefore, if you add more text to that row later, Word doesn’t automatically expand that row’s height to accommodate it, and some text may be truncated.

In contrast, in a default-formatted table that uses fixed column widths, column width remains the same until you change it, regardless of the cell’s content. If you want the width of a column to change, you must change it yourself.

Change the AutoFit setting

As you learned earlier in this chapter, there are three choices for a table’s AutoFit setting. You can switch among these settings with the AutoFit drop-down list on the Table Tools Layout tab, as shown in Figure 5-18. Here are some things to remember about AutoFit:

AutoFit Contents allows each table cell to expand as needed as you type text in it.

AutoFit Window changes the size of the table as needed so the table is fully visible onscreen. This option is used when creating web pages and is not common in regular documents.

Fixed Column Width, the default, makes the table as wide as possible given the document’s margin settings and evenly distributes the available space among the columns.

Figure 5-18: Change the table’s AutoFit setting.

Resize individual rows and columns

Here are several ways to resize rows and columns.

To resize a row, drag its bottom border up or down.

To resize a column, drag its right border right or left.

To specify an exact height for a row, enter it in the Height box on the Table Tools Layout tab.

To specify an exact width for a column, enter it in the Width box.

To make all rows of equal height, click Distribute Rows.

To make all columns of equal width, click Distribute Columns.

Figure 5-19: Resize rows and columns.

Add and remove rows and columns

To add a row to the bottom of a table, position the insertion point in the bottom right cell and press Tab. Using this method you can keep growing your table as you type.

To add a row or column anywhere else, follow these steps:

1. Select a row or column adjacent to where you want the new one.

If you want to insert multiple rows or columns, select multiple rows or columns.

On the Table Tools Layout tab, click one of the Insert buttons in the Rows & Columns group.

Figure 5-20: Insert rows or columns.

To remove a row or column, follow these steps:

1. Select the row(s) or column(s) to be deleted.

2. On the Table Tools Layout tab, click Delete.

You can also delete rows and columns without selecting entire rows or columns beforehand like this:

1. Click in any cell in the row or column to delete.

On the Table Tools Layout tab, click the down arrow on the Delete button, opening a menu.

Click Delete Columns or Delete Rows.

Figure 5-21: Delete rows or columns.

Apply borders to table cells

Gridlines are the dividers that separate a table’s rows and columns. Gridlines can be displayed or hidden onscreen (via Table Tools Layout  ⇒  View Gridlines). Gridlines do not print, and when displayed onscreen, they appear as thin blue or gray dashed lines.

You probably won’t see the gridlines in most tables because they’re covered by borders. A border is formatting applied to a gridline that makes it appear when printed. By default, table gridlines have a plain black ½ border.

You can change the borders to different colors, styles (such as dotted or dashed), and thicknesses or remove the borders altogether.

When you apply a border to an individual cell, it’s pretty straightforward: right, left, top, and bottom. When you apply a border to a group of cells, though, there are additional options, such as inside (applies only to the borders between the selected cells) and outside (applies only to the borders around the edge of the selection block).

Follow these steps to apply a border.

1. Select the cell(s) to affect. See “Select cells, rows, and columns” earlier in this chapter.

On the Table Tools Design tab, click the down arrow on the Border Styles button and click the desired border style. The colors of the border styles depend on the theme colors in the document.

OR

On the Table Tools Design tab, use the Line Style, Line Weight, and Pen Color lists to define the border you want.

Click the down arrow under the Borders button to open its menu, and then click the desired border to apply. Repeat as needed to apply additional borders. For example, you might apply Top Border and then apply Bottom Border.

OR

Click the Border Painter button, and then click on each gridline individually in the table to apply the border settings to it. Press Esc or click the Border Painter button again to turn the feature off.

To remove all borders from the table, open the Borders button’s list and choose No Border.

Figure 5-22: Choose a border style to apply.

Figure 5-23: Define the border using the tools in the Borders group.

Figure 5-24: Apply the border using either the Borders button’s list or the Border Painter feature.

You can copy border formatting with the Border Sampler feature, which is somewhat like the Format Painter feature. Open the Border Styles button’s list (refer to Figure 5-22) and click Border Sampler. The mouse pointer turns into an eyedropper. Click a border to be copied, and the mouse pointer turns into a pen tool. Then click the border to receive the formatting. Press Esc to turn the feature off when finished.

Apply shading to table cells

Shading, in this context, refers to a background fill in a table cell. Each cell can have a different shading, although that would be uncommon. Shading is typically used to differentiate one row or column from another. For example, you might shade every other line a light green to simulate an old-style paper accounting ledger, or you might shade the top row of your table differently from the other rows to indicate that it holds column headings.

In Excel, you can apply special shading effects to cells, like gradients and textures. You can’t do that to Word tables; shading is strictly a solid-color proposition.

To apply shading to one or more cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell(s) to affect. See “Select cells, rows, and columns” earlier in this chapter.

On the Table Tools Design tab, click the down arrow on the Shading button. A palette of colors opens.

3. Click the desired color.

Choose colors from the Theme Colors section of the palette to apply theme colors (which change if you change the document theme).

Choose from the Standard Colors section to apply fixed colors.

To remove shading from the selected cells, choose No Color.

Choose More Colors to open a Color dialog box with more fixed color choices.

Figure 5-25: Choose a shading color for the selected cells.

Insert a picture from a file

Word accepts pictures in a wide variety of graphic formats, including JPEG, TIF, GIF, BMP, and PNG. You can drag-and-drop pictures from File Explorer directly into a Word document, or you can insert them with the following procedure.

To insert a picture from a file, follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the picture to appear.

On the Insert tab, click Pictures. The Insert Picture dialog box opens.

Select the picture you want to insert. You might need to navigate to a different location.

Click Insert.

Figure 5-26: Insert a picture from your own files.

Find pictures online

The bad news about online images is: there’s no more clip art. Microsoft has discontinued their clip art repository, and clip art is no longer available in Office products. The good news is that you can search the entire Internet for pictures via Bing image search without leaving Word. The search results include only images that are licensed by Creative Commons, meaning you can use them without having to pay a fee.

Not all Creative Commons licensed images are free for every usage. Some are free only for non-commercial use, for example. Check a picture’s source and license before you commit to using it in a publication.

To insert an online image, follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the picture to appear.

2. On the Insert tab, click Online Pictures. The Insert Pictures dialog box opens.

In the Bing Image Search box, type keywords that represent what you want.

Click the Search button or press Enter to perform the search.

Click the Close icon to clear the Creative Commons note from the screen.

Click the desired image.

Scroll down to see more images. (See in Figure 5-28.)

Click Insert.

Figure 5-27: Type your keywords in the Bing Image Search box.

Figure 5-28: Type your keywords in the Bing Image Search box.

Manage picture placement and size

After you insert a graphic in a document, you may decide you want to move it or change how the text around it interacts with it. For example, you might want the text to wrap around the graphic or even run on top of it.

You can size and position a graphic in several ways. You can manually size or move by dragging; you can specify exact values for height, width, or position on the page; or you can use the Word placement commands to place the image in relation to other content.

Change a picture’s wrap setting

By default, a picture is inserted as an inline image, which means it’s treated like a really large text character. That’s not usually the best way for an image to interact with the text, though. More often you want the text to flow around the image so that if the text moves (due to editing), the graphic stays where you put it. You can change a picture’s text wrap setting to control this.

The most common wrap settings are:

· In Line with Text: The picture flows in with the text and is treated like text.

· Square: Text wraps around the picture’s rectangular outer frame.

· Tight: If the picture is rectangular, same as Square, but if the picture has a transparent background, like with clip art, the text wraps around the picture itself, not its frame.

· Through: Text runs right through the picture, as if the picture were not there.

· Top and bottom: The picture interrupts the text vertically; text flows above and below it, but not on the sides.

To set a picture’s wrap:

On the Format tab, click Wrap Text.

Click the desired setting.

Here’s a shortcut alternative. When a picture is selected, a Layout Options icon floats to its right. You can click this icon for a quick menu from which you can control text wrapping, as shown at in Figure 5-30.

Figure 5-29: Choose a wrap setting.

Figure 5-30: Another way of controlling text wrap.

Move a picture

To move a picture, drag it. Position the mouse anywhere over the picture (except not over a selection handle on the border) and drag.

The mouse pointer becomes a four-headed arrow when it’s positioned correctly for moving, as shown at in Figure 5-31.

If it won’t drag, the picture is probably as In Line with Text as its wrap setting. Change this (for example, to Square), as you learned in the previous section, and it will become draggable.

Figure 5-31: Drag a picture to move it.

Resize a picture

You can resize an inserted picture to any size you like. Here are some things to know about resizing pictures:

To resize a picture, drag one of its selection handles. A selection handle is a circular marker on the outer frame of the picture.

As you drag, a dotted outline shows the new dimensions, and the mouse pointer appears as a crosshair.

When you drag a side selection handle, the picture may become distorted because you are changing its aspect ratio (its height-width ratio).

To keep the picture’s aspect ratio constant, drag a corner selection handle instead.

Figure 5-32: Drag a selection handle to resize a picture.

Rotate a picture

To rotate a picture, drag its rotation handle. (See in Figure 5-33.)

Figure 5-33: Rotate a picture by dragging its rotation handle.

If you want more precise control over the rotation, such as rotating to a specific angle, follow these steps:

1. Select the picture.

On the Picture Tools Format tab, click Rotate Objects to open a menu.

Click More Rotation Options. The Layout dialog box opens to the Size tab.

In the Rotation box, type a number from 0 to 359.

Click OK.

Figure 5-34: Choose More Rotation Options.

Figure 5-35: Enter a precise value in the Rotation box.

Caption and auto-number pictures

In a business or academic document, you might have many pictures or other illustrations, and you might want to refer to them numerically. If you use the Caption feature, Word will keep the figure numbers sequential even if you move content around and add or delete content.

To add a caption to a picture, follow these steps:

Right-click the picture and choose Insert Caption.

Instead of step 1, you can select the picture and then click the Insert Caption button on the References tab.

In the Caption box, after the figure number, type the caption that should appear.

3. Set any other options as desired:

If appropriate, open the Label list and choose Equation or Table. Equations, tables, and figures are all numbered separately.

You can also click new Label to add another type to the Label list, like Illustration, for example.

Open the Position list and select a position for the caption if you don’t want the default setting.

If you don’t want the word Figure (or Equation, or Table) to appear in the caption, mark the Exclude label from caption check box.

For more control over the numbering, such as number format, click the Numbering button.

If you want all figures to automatically be captioned, click AutoCaption and then use the AutoCaption dialog box to set up captioning options.

Click OK.

Figure 5-36: Right-click the picture and choose Insert Caption.

Figure 5-37: Enter the caption to use, and set captioning options.

In a technical document, you might want to have a table of figures. That’s like a table of contents except it lists the figures and their captions and tells what page each one is on. To set up a table of figures, use the Insert Table of Figures command on the References tab.