7 Word spreadsheet tricks you might not know about

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There is an opinion that Microsoft Word tables are the most annoying part of a text editor. They are clumsy, hard to manage, hard to format. After reading this article, you will have no such prejudices.

This bias against tables is deeply rooted. To be honest, a dozen years ago, tables in Word could not boast of convenience due to the imperfection of the program as a whole. But a lot of time has passed since then. Microsoft has done a great job on its mistakes and has done everything possible for the convenience of users. It is a pity, of course, that many of those same users do not know about this and still work in the 2003 edition of the office suite. Doesn't it remind you of the story of hedgehogs and cacti?:)

I just humanly recommend to everyone stuck in the past to upgrade to at least the 2013th version of Microsoft Office, and better - immediately to the latest, 2016th. Believe me, it only seems to you that you are working in an environment that has become a classic; in fact, it has long been overgrown with moss and mold.

Use templates

Office everyday life is full of monotonous documents, including tables. We take one electronic piece of paper, cut out a part of it, insert it into a new document and edit the details. Nice technique, but it seems to me that working with templates is a little easier and faster. By the way, in Word itself, templates are called express tables.

Click on the "Insert" tab, click on "Table" and go to "Express Tables". Pay attention to the item "Save selection to collection".

Here you will find several quite useful options and, most importantly, you can save any other table or its fragment, including your own production, as a template.

Draw tables

Remember the bear that walked over your ears and hands as a child in an unrestrained gypsy dance? Since then, you have disliked singing and brushes, and since then you have stubbornly ignored the "Draw Table" option in Word. Shake it up, grown man! It's time to crush the furry monster! This is easier than it sounds.

Click on the "Insert" tab, click on "Table" and go to the item "Draw Table".

And don't be afraid to make a mistake: there is always an eraser at hand. Sometimes a pencil and a washer greatly simplify the creation of complex tables with small elements.

Insert rows and columns quickly

Beginning with Word 2013, adding rows and columns has gone from furious torture to fun. Do not think, the archaic "Insert columns left / right" and "Insert rows above / below" have not gone anywhere, but now you can forget about them.

Hover over the space between rows or columns outside the table and click the plus that appears.

In the future, I would like to see something similar for the delete function.

Apply a ruler

Each person has favorite and repulsive numbers that he indiscriminately uses or avoids in his life. Even in the parameters of their tables. I know those.:)

If you are used to accurately setting the padding values, width and height of cells through the table properties, try an alternative - the ruler.

Move the cursor over the border of columns or rows, grab it, hold down the Alt key and use the convenience of a centimeter ruler.

You can do the same trick with indentation and indentation markers. Hover over them and hold down the same Alt key.

Use hotkeys

If I were a software developer, I would call hotkeys soul buttons. After all, sometimes you just want to hug a laptop just because they are. As far as Word tables are concerned, the three most common combinations I use are:

1. Alt + Shift + "Up / Down" quickly moves the current line one position higher or lower (just an irreplaceable thing).
2. Ctrl + Shift + A instantly converts uppercase letters to uppercase, which is very useful for headings.
3. Ctrl + Tab adds tabs to a cell, while a regular Tab moves the cursor to the next cell.

Convert text to table

A bit of magic to brag about in front of an astonished audience. Instead of creating tables in the usual way, try a couple of other, more sophisticated options:

• Cell arrays copied from Excel are pasted into Word as a table with invisible borders.
• Well-structured text can be easily converted into a table using standard Word tools.

Select the text, click on the "Insert" tab, click on "Table" and select "Convert to Table".

Pay attention to the auxiliary parameters: the conversion quality depends on them directly.

Control cell sizes

If you want to know a person, throw him a table with a tyrant text. A slightly free interpretation of the well-known opinion, of course, but it hits the mark. Just take a look at the screenshot, or rather at the first column and the word "philological" is an ugly thorn.

According to my observations, in such cases, people first express themselves indecently, and then resort to not the most optimal way out - reduce the font size. But it's better to fit the text in a different way.

Right-click in the cell, select the "Table Properties" item, switch to the "Cell" tab, go to the "Parameters" and put a tick in the "Fit Text" column.

Word will pull its strength and return the escaped letter to its place, and peace will reign in the world again. By the way, for clarity, the "inscribed" text will be underlined with a blue line.

And also, it happens, you borrow someone's table and quite hum to yourself: "Only you, the fish of my dreams"! Good work with someone else's hands! You start to fill it with your data, and then an uncontrollable devilry happens: some columns sprawl due to the weight loss of others. The head becomes sober, and the reality ceases to please. How to be?

All jokes, but it happens that you are sent a table of a strict format, with which you cannot fail. At the very least, do not be lazy to send it back with the same dimensions. This will allow the recipient to see what he expects to see. To do this, turn off autosize by content.

Click in any of the cells with the right mouse button, select "Table Properties", go to "Parameters" and uncheck the "Autosize to Content" box.

The same option will save your spreadsheet from collapse if you need to fill some cells with images: they will fit in the form of a thumbnail instead of full-scale.

Anything to add? Write in the comments.