Exploring Office 2007: Word 2007 Table Tips & Tricks Numbering Rows and Formatting with Styles and Themes Helen Bradley
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Numbering Rows
To number the rows in a table, select the column to contain the numbers and click the Numbering button on the Home tab. Each cell will be numbered appropriately — if the cells are empty the numbers will fill them, and if there is text in the cell the numbers will appear before the text.
If you move the contents of a row up or down — which you can do by pressing Alt + Shift + Up Arrow (or Alt + Shift + Down Arrow), the numbers will adjust accordingly.
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Formatting with Styles and Themes
To format a table click in it and from the Design tab choose a Table Design from those displayed. To highlight alternate columns or rows, click Banded Columns or Banded Rows from the Design tab.
You can add your own formatting to a table by selecting various options from the formatting area of the Home tab and the Table Tools > Design tab. If you use theme colors for the changes and later change the theme, the entire table look will change accordingly.
If you have a nicely formatted table that you want to be able to reuse later on, save it by selecting the table and choosing the Insert tab > Quick Parts. Select Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery, type a name for the Building Block, and then select Tables as the Gallery to save it to. To use this in future, click Insert > Table > Quick Tables, choose the table from the list and then edit it as required.
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Sorting Data
You can sort the data in a table so it appears in alphabetical or numeric order based on a column's contents. To do this, select the table and choose Layout > Sort.
Select the column to sort by and the type of data in that column. If your table has a header row, select Header Row to protect that row from being sorted.
If you have column totals or more than one header row, don't select the entire table. Instead, select only the rows to sort. Then select No Header Row and Word will only sort the selected rows protecting your headings and totals.
Tables are a great way to arrange data in a document and the new Word 2007 themes and formatting features make it easy to create tables that look good and that are consistent within the document and between documents.
Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. She blogs at http://www.projectwoman.com/blogger.html.
Be sure to check out all of Helen's articles in the Exploring Office 2007 series:
