OpenOffice.org Writer Level 1 Course Material/LESSON 6: Adding Tables

LESSON 6: Adding Tables

What is a Table?

A table form consisting of vertical columns and horizontal rows, as in a spreadsheet appears on the screen. The positions where columns and rows cross are called cells. Tables often can be used as an alternative to spreadsheets to organize materials. A well-designed table can help readers understand better what you are saying. While you would normally use tables for text or numbers, you can put other objects such as pictures in cells. Tables can also be used as a page layout tool to position text in areas of a document instead of using several Tab characters. For example, a business may prepare a template of a letter with their logo, the sender, receiver, date, and subject fields correctly positioned in a table with invisible borders.

Create a Table

The are different methods of creating a table, you can create a table from Menu bar and Standard Toolbar. The following is to create a table from Menu bar.

To Create a Table

1.Place the cursor at the position in the text where to insert the table. 2.Click Table [[Image:|thumb|Figure 132: Menu Bar (Table)]] 3.Select Insert [[Image:]] 4.Select Table [[Image:]] Figure 133: Table Menu 4.From the above window Type a Table Name on the text box [[Image:|thumb|Figure 134: Insert Table Dialog Box]] 5.Specify the number of columns and rows 6.Click Ok When a cursor is inside a table, a Table object bar will be visible. [[Image:]] Figure 135: Table Toolbar

Auto format a Table

You can use AutoFormat to make your table formats consistent. You can also create and add your own table auto formats.

To AutoFormat a Table

1.Create a table and manually format it as you wish, including borders, spacing of text from the top and bottom borders, fonts to be used in the table heading and data cells, and background colours. 2.Position the cursor anywhere in the Table, 3.Click Table [[Image:|thumb|Figure 136: Menu Bar (Table)]] 4.Click AutoFormat. [[Image:|thumb|Figure 137: Tool Menu (Autoformat)]] 5.Select a of the Format from a list given [[Image:|thumb|Figure 138: Autoformat Window]] 6.Click OK

Convert Tabbed Text into a Table

To convert tabbed text into a Table

1.Highlight tabbed text that you want to convert into Table 2.Click Table [[Image:]] 3.Select Convert [[Image:|thumb|Figure 139: Table Menu (Convert)]] 4.Select Text to Table [[Image:]] Figure 140: Table to Text 5.Convert text to table dialog box is show as below [[Image:]] Figure 141: Convert Tab Text to Table 6.Select the option of Tabs from Separate text at 7.Click OK :

Exercise

Make two tables of two rows and two columns each and place them side by side with some space in between them. (See 'discussion').