Creating a basic table is dead easy. But what if you want to create more than one table and place them side by side? When my colleague threw this question at me, I thought there may be a function that could quickly do this…there wasn’t. Fret not, there’s a way to resolve this!
For example, if you want two tables side by side, create a two-column-by-one-row table. Make sure that for each table, in the Table Properties dialog, the text wrapping is set to None instead of Around. Then cut one of your tables and paste it into one of the two cells, and cut/paste your other table into the second cell. Once you have a table in Word, you might decide to split that table into two or more tables. This way, you can create smaller tables, or add text in between two tables. Put your cursor on the row that you want as the first row of your second table. In the example table, it’s on the third row.
In this tutorial, I’ll guide you on how to create two tables side by side, with each table having two columns and five rows.
1. Select the Inserttab and click the Tablebutton from the Tables group.
2. A dropdown box consisting of 10 squares (horizontally) and 8 squares (vertically) will launch. The 10 horizontal squares represent the table columns whereas the 8 vertical squares represent the table rows. Each square represent a table cell.
3. Move your pointer over the squares to highlight 5 columns and 5 rows, and left-click to select.
4. A blank 5×5 table will be inserted into your document.
5. As an example, I’ve populated the table with some information of a comparative nature, leaving the third column blank.
6. Resize the width of the third column so that it leaves a smaller space between the second and fourth column (i.e., move your pointer on the right border of the third column until it turns into a resize pointer and drag it to the left, and vice versa).
7. The table will look like this:
Note that the Site A, Site B, Site C and Site D columns are not distributed evenly.
8. To distribute the columns evenly, highlight the first two columns, and select the Layout tab. Click the Distribute Columnsbutton from the Cell Sizegroup. Repeat the same for the last two columns.
9. The table is now evenly distributed except for the third column. Now, the trick is to make the third column “disappear”, so that it will appear as if there are two tables side by side. Highlight the third column and right-click it. From the pop-up menu, select Borders and Shading.
10. The Borders and Shadingdialog box appears. Look at the Preview section. It displays the current state of the table borders.
11. You can either click (A) the three buttons on the left side of the diagram, or (B) click on the diagram to make the lines disappear. When you’re done, click the OK button.
12. Voila! Here are the two tables side by side! Nifty trick, eh?
How to combine two or more tables into one in Word document?
In Word, if you have two or more tables needed to be merged into one single table as below screenshot shown, how can you quickly handle it?
Combine multiple tables into one by dragging
You can drag the table to join with another one.
1. Click at anywhere of the table you want to drag, then the cross sign will be appeared.
2. Then click on this cross sign to select the whole table, and drag it to place near the table you want to join to.
3. Release the cursor, now the table has been joined to the above one.
Combine multiple tables into one by Merge table command
Also, you can use the Merge table command in context menu to merge two tables.
1. Click at anywhere of the table you want to drag, then the cross sign will be appeared, then select the cross sign to select the whole table.
2. Press Ctrl + X to cut the table, then put the cursor at the place of the table you want to insert the cut table, right click to select Merge table from the context menu.
Now the cut table has been inserted into the table you want.
Combine multiple tables into one by Shortcuts
The Shortcuts can combine tables too.
Shift + Alt + Up arrow to combine with above table
Word Create Two Tables Side By Side
1. Click on the table you want to drag, then the cross sign will be appeared, then click the cross sign to select the whole table.
2. Press Shift + Alt + Uparrow until the selected table is joined to above one.
Shift + Alt + Down arrow to combine with below table
1. Click at anywhere of the table you want to drag, then the cross sign will be appeared, then click the cross sign to select the whole table.
2. Press Shift + Alt + Down arrow until the table is joined to below one.
Tabbed browsing & editing multiple Word documents/Excel workbooks as Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explore 10! |
You may be familiar to view multiple webpages in Firefox/Chrome/IE, and switch between them by clicking corresponding tabs easily. Here, Office Tab supports similar processing, which allow you to browse multiple Word documents or Excel workbooks in one Word window or Excel window, and easily switch between them by clicking their tabs. |
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