Microsoft^® Word: 2 Power User Tips

Contributed by Rob Siders

As you’re probably well aware, today’s Microsoft Office suite is chock full of whiz-bang features. In fact, you probably use about a tenth of all you can do with Word or Excel®.

Most of the time, writing letters or preparing reports is a snap. The features you use most frequently are the ones that really don’t need any explanation. Chances are, the first time you used Word you typed what you needed, saved it and then printed it without any instruction.

Even with more complicated tasks, you might not have used the most efficient way of accomplishing it—but you got it done through sheer resolve and dogged resourcefulness.

One of those tasks that seem painstakingly tedious—if not insurmountable—is converting an existing table into text in Microsoft Word. The way you’ve probably done this in the past is by copying and pasting.

Once you’ve copied and pasted everything from the table you still need to format the text to match the rest of your document. Boldface this. Italicize that. Make this a heading.

There’s a better, faster way to do this. Here’s how to convert your table to text:

1. Select the table you want to convert to text. You can highlight the entire table by hovering over the table with your mouse and clicking the box with the double-arrow at the top left corner of the table.
   (The box with the double-arrow looks like this .)
   
   
2. Click the Table menu from the toolbar at the top of the Microsoft Word window, and then select Convert. The submenu will open, as shown in the screen shot below.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Table to Text. The Convert Table to Text box will open, as shown in the screen shot below.
   
   
   
   
4. Select a column format, and then click OK. (This box determines how your table’s columns appear as text in your Word document. It is recommended that you select Tabs, the default option.)
   

Easy stuff. Just a few steps replaces click after click after time-consuming and wearisome click (with maybe some keyboard shortcuts thrown in for good measure).

Once this is done, you may still have to format the text you just converted from the table. Here’s how to use the format painter feature to make this go quick:

1. Highlight a word or two of formatted text you wish to use for your unformatted table text.
   
   
2. Click the paintbrush on the toolbar at the top of the Microsoft Word window.
   (The paintbrush looks like this .)
   
   
3. Find the text from your table and highlight any that you wish to format. The formatting will copy to the table text once you release the mouse button.
   
   
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 with other formatted text, as necessary.

Just like that you’ve demystified two powerful features in Microsoft Word. In the process, you’ve saved yourself valuable time and maddening frustration.

Microsoft product screen shots reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

About the Author:
Rob Siders is a freelance writer living in Denver, Colorado.

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