24 Create a Table

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Writer gives you many ways to create, edit, and format tables. Not surprisingly, the simplest ways are usually the most preferred ways.

Before You Begin

23 About Writer Tables


To add a new table to your document, you can

  • Type an initial row of plus signs and hyphens to start your table

  • Use the Insert Table dialog box to designate rows and columns and table formatting

See Also

25 Format a Table

26 Manage a Table


  1. Start a Table

    Open a new document to practice creating tables. Type a plus sign, followed by 10 hyphens. Type another plus sign and another 10 hyphens. Keep doing this until you type 6 sets and close with a plus sign. You can copy and paste these sets of hyphens instead of typing each one.

    NOTE

    graphics/notebw_icon.gif

    The minus sign is the same as a hyphen on your keyboard.

    graphics/04inf09.jpg graphics/04inf10.jpg You have now typed what is needed to let Writer know you want to begin a new table.

  2. Complete the Lines

    Press Enter after the final plus sign. As soon as you do, Writer converts your line of plus signs and hyphens to one row of a table, designated by lines to form 6 columns.

    NOTE

    graphics/notebw_icon.gif

    If your cell is not wide enough to hold what you type, Writer increases the cell height to hold more data. Writer does not widen the cell. To widen the cell, see 26 Manage a Table .

  3. Add Data

    Once Writer creates the first row of the table, it places your text cursor in the leftmost cell so you can type the table's data. When you finish typing the data, press Tab to move to the next cell to the right. When you finish the row, press Tab again and Writer will create the next row for you. If you press Enter instead of Tab at the end of a row, Writer assumes you're through with the table and will not add an additional row.

  4. Insert the Premade Table

    Instead of creating your table by typing the plus signs and hyphens, you can request that Writer generate your entire table for you before you type anything.

    On a blank line (not inside another table), select Table from the Insert menu to display the Insert Table dialog box. Select the number of columns and rows you want in your table. If you don't know exactly how many columns and rows you need, guess as closely as you can. (See 26 Manage a Table to learn how to add or remove extra rows and columns.)

    Click the Header option if you want the first row of your table to be separated from the rest of the table with a bold line. You can use this row for your heading information, such as titles across the top of the table if you wish. Click the Repeat header option if you want the first row to be repeated on every page, assuming your table will span multiple pages. If you click Don't split table , Writer will not begin the table toward the bottom of the page if the page break would split the table; rather, Writer begins the table at the top of the next page.

    NOTE

    graphics/notebw_icon.gif

    Some tables will be so long, the Don't split table option will not work. If a table is longer than one page, Writer has to split the table.

  5. Automatically Format the Table

    Click the AutoFormat button to select an initial format for your table. You learn how to apply other kinds of formatting changes to your table in 25 Format a Table , but you can select an initial format from the list you get when you click AutoFormat .

  6. Select the Look

    Select a format from the list, and when you do, Writer displays a preview of such a table at the right of the AutoFormat dialog box. You can keep selecting from the various formats until you find a format you want to use. Once you've selected a table format, click OK to close the AutoFormat dialog box. Then click OK to close the Insert Table dialog box as well.

  7. Fill In the Resulting Table

    Writer creates your table and displays its empty cells for you to fill in with data. Be sure to put titles in the first row if you chose an initial first-row heading for your table.

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Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One
ISBN: 0672326183
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 205
Authors: Greg Perry

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