Table Styles & Settings in Microsoft Word

Table Styles

A range of styles can be applied to tables using pre-set formats. Word offers many different table styles for users to apply to tables. Finding a style that will fit in well to your document can be achieved quickly with the range of styles available.

1. Open a New Document

2. Create a table with 3 rows and 4 columns

3. On the Table Tools Design tab, click on the More drop-down arrow on the Table Styles box

4. Choose Grid Table 4 – Accent 2

Merge & Split Cells/Table

Cells can be divided into 2 or more cells using the split function. Merge joins 2 or more cells together. A table can be split into 2 tables also.

1. With the document still open, highlight the first 2 adjacent cells in the second row

2. On the Table Tools Layout tab in the Merge group, click on Merge

3. The cells have been merged into one cell

4. With the cell still selected, click on Split Cells in the Merge group

5. Choose Number of Columns 2

6. Click OK

7. The cells have been split into two

8. With the cursor in the second row, in the Merge group, click on Split Table

9. This splits the table into two

10. Save the document as “Table”

Cell Margins

The margins between cells in a table can be set using table options. The margins are set in centimetres and users can also apply spacing between cells. Another option is available to resize the cells to fit its contents.

1. Open the “Table” document

2. On the Table Tools Layout tab in the Alignment group, select Cell Margins

3. Change the cell margins to the following settings:

4. Click OK

5. Save the document as ‘Table 2’

To learn more advanced word processing features, click on the link below: