Creating Effective Tables

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Half the battle in creating a logical, usable table is in the planning. What do you want to show in table form? What will your readers be looking for, and how can you best organize that data to help them find what they need? Here are some additional questions to ask as you're thinking about the table you're going to create:

• Do you need to create the table in a limited space in your document?

• How many rows and columns will you need?

• Will the table content include text, numbers, or both?

• Will you use functions for totaling and averaging columns?

• Will you have other, similar tables in your document?

• Will you use a predesigned table style or create your own?

Knowing ahead of time what you want to create helps you get a "big picture" of the resulting table. Throughout this chapter, you'll find the necessary procedures for creating tables with each of the above characteristics.

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