Thinkabara

📝 Microsoft Word for Beginners · Lesson 5 of 9

Tables

Google Classroom

Insert a table, add rows and columns, design and merge cells.

Insert a table

  1. Click where the table should go
  2. On the Insert tab click “Table”
  3. Move the mouse over the squares to the size you want, for example 3 columns by 4 rows, and click

Moving around a table

TabGo to the next cell
Shift+TabGo to the previous cell
Tab in the last cellAdds a new row at the end

Rows, columns and merging

Right-click inside a cell to “Insert” (a row above or below, a column left or right) or “Delete”. To turn several cells into one — for example a title across the top of the table — select them, right-click and choose “Merge Cells”.

Design

When the cursor is inside a table, two new tabs appear: “Table Design” and “Layout”. In Table Design, pick a ready-made style with colors and check “Header Row” so the first row stands out. In Layout you can align text inside the cells and set column widths.

Tip

💡 Double-click the line between two columns to fit the column width to its text.

✏️ Practice: your turn

  1. Insert a table with 3 columns and 4 rows: Day, Subject, Homework
  2. Fill it in, moving between cells with Tab
  3. Press Tab in the last cell to add a row
  4. Pick a colorful table style and check Header Row

✏️ No Word on this computer? Practice in our free online document editor

🧠 Quick quiz

Answer all 4 questions correctly to mark this lesson as done.

1. Where do you insert a table?
2. What happens when you press Tab in the last cell?
3. How do you turn three cells into one?
4. Where do you choose a colorful table style?

0 of 4 correct

All lessons in Microsoft Word for Beginners

  1. ✍️ 1. Your first documentOpen a document, type, save and undo a mistake
  2. 🎨 2. Formatting textFont, size, bold, color and the Format Painter
  3. 📐 3. Paragraphs, alignment and listsAlignment, bullets, numbering, indents and line spacing
  4. 🏷️ 4. Headings and stylesHeading 1 and Heading 2, the Navigation Pane and updating a style
  5. ▦ 5. TablesInsert a table, add rows and columns, design and merge cells
  6. 🖼️ 6. Pictures and shapesInsert a picture, resize it, wrap text and add alt text
  7. 📄 7. A neat pageMargins, orientation, page breaks, headers and page numbers
  8. 🎓 8. A paper ready to hand inTitle page, table of contents, footnotes, spell check and PDF
  9. ⚡ 9. Time-saving tricksFind and replace, paste without formatting, templates and sharing