23 About Writer Tables

Writer's table-creation power shines when you see how easily you can compose customized tables of information in Writer documents. Tables might contain numbers , text, even graphics, or combinations of any of these. Each row and column intersection is called a cell . As you begin to use both Writer and Calc (see 39 Create a New Spreadsheet ), you might want to embed part of a Calc spreadsheet into a Writer table. Such embedded spreadsheets enable you, for example, to report financial data from within a Writer report.

Before You Begin

5 Edit Text

13 Apply Paragraph Formatting

See Also

24 Create a Table

25 Format a Table

With Writer, you can easily create tables from your keyboard. You type a series of plus signs and hyphens, and Writer will interpret that as the start of your table. For example, suppose you type the following:

+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

KEY TERMS

Tables ” Collections of information organized in rows and columns .

Cell ” A row and column intersection in a Writer or Calc table or spreadsheet.

Writer then converts that to a one-row table with four columns. Once you fill in that column with values (pressing Tab and Shift+Tab to move between columns), Writer inserts a new row for you.

Writer generates a table with lines around rows and columns after you type a row of plus signs and hyphens.

NOTE

The ruler shows special column markers when you select a table. By adjusting the ruler's columns, you can adjust the table's width.

You can also define a table before typing anything. For example, you can request a 12-row, 5-column table formatted a certain way by using the Insert Table dialog box.

Once you create a table, you then can easily adjust its height and width simply by dragging one of the edges with your mouse. You can add and delete rows and columns, too. In addition, you can apply formatting attributes to your table to add color , highlighting, special fonts, and other format attributes that make a dull table look good.

Writer can generate a fancy table with automatic formatting, including column shading and lines.