Advanced Microsoft® Office Documents 2007 Edition Inside Out

Key Practices for Creating Tables That Work

The following best practices apply to creating Word tables for any purpose.

1. To create a table, drag your pointer across and down the table grid available on the Insert tab in the Tables group. You might notice that the grid no longer expands to larger than ten columns by eight rows. So, if you need a larger table, click Insert Table below the grid for the dialog box where you can enter the number of columns and rows you need. Of course, you can always add columns and rows later, if required.

   Do not use Draw Table to create a table. Doing so will always take longer and never be as precise as the other methods discussed here. Even if what you need is a creative layout, Draw Table isn’t the way to get there. ...