OpenOffice Tables in Writer: A Set of Solid Basics

A reader wrote to me with some questions about moving tables, and I realized I hadn't done much about tables in this blog.  It's high time, of course. Writer tables are a bit different than in MS Word, so it's definitely worth explaining those key differences.

Here's a basic table in Writer. Nothing surprising--you have a header row (optional) with different formatting (by default), and borders on every column and row (by default).

 

This is the first post, on creating them, moving them, changing width, etc. All the table blogs will be in the new Tables category.

Creating Tables

Creating tables is pretty simple. Just choose Insert > Table, or Table > Insert > Table. When you get the following window, just mark your choices. Keep in mind that the number of rows includes the heading row (which you usually want, but not always).

Another approach is to click and hold down on the Table icon shown, in the toolbar at the top of your work area, and just select the layout you want.

 

Turn On Nonprinting Characters

It's much easier to tell what's going on in text documents, and in tables, if you have nonprinting characters showing. These are mainly the carriage returns, but also spaces (little dots) and tabs (arrows). Choose View > Nonprinting Characters and select it to put a checkmark by it.

 

The nonprinting characters will appear.

Make Sure You've Got the Table Toolbar

The Table toolbar has a host of goodies to use. Choose View > Toolbars > Table if you don't see it.

Drag it up to be with the rest of the toolbars and release, to dock it, so that it will stay around rather than appearing and disappearing as you click in and out of the table.

What If You Want a Space Above Your Table?

Here's something that happens a lot. You've inserted a table at the top of the document, but now you need text above the table.

All you have to do is click in the upper left corner and press Return.

Deleting Tables

If you just select a table and its content and press Delete, only the content is deleted. Now, if you just want to delete the content, that's great. But to delete the table, you need to do one of the following:

Select the blank line above the table, as well as the table, and press Delete.

Or select the table, right-click, choose Row > Delete or Column > Delete.

 

Or select  the table, and click the Delete Row or Delete Column icon on the Table toolbar.

Adding Rows or Columns

You can add rows or columns with the icons on the toolbar. Click in the row or column next to where you want to add the row or column, and click the appropriate green icon.

You can also click in the lower right cell of a table and press Tab. You'll get a new row.

Moving Tables

If you want to move a table, just cut and paste. Select the whole table, plus the blank line above it. Cut (Ctrl X), then go to where you want the table and paste (Ctrl V).

Changing Column Width Manually

You can drag the column widths to change them, or use the big properties window.

Here's how to drag:

Click in the column that you want to change. You'll see markers on the ruler for the columns.

Move your mouse over the column marker. You'll see the mouse pointer change as shown.

Click and hold down on the column marker and drag it right or left to change width.

Release and the column will have a new width.

To change the right and left margins of the tables, move your mouse over the part of the ruler where it changes from white to gray, and drag as you did to change the column width.

To do this in a window instead, select the table and choose Table > Table Properties. Click the Column tab and type the width values for each column. Click OK.

When this blog continues....more on things like borders and shading, autoformats, automatic column width adjustments, and much more!

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Comments

[Kevin Lisciotti]

Hi Solveig,

Being true to your word, you posted about tables. Excellent blog entry and very helpful, thanks so much!

Hopefully others find it beneficial as well.

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi Kevin,

I'm glad it's helpful! I've already got Wednesday's and Friday's blogs in the can -- formatting borders and shading, and uberformatting the much easier way with AutoFormats.

Solveig

[Jim Brittain]

Uh... in view of the "delete the entire table" part of this post, do you think it would be a good idea to just get into the habit of putting in a carriage return on top of the table? (Unless, of course, it would screw up your other formattign too much. But my experience is that many single-page fill-in-the-blank forms are made with tables, and a single carriage return at the top wouldn't make that much difference in these.)

[Solveig]

Hi Jim,

I think it would be a good idea, definitely. Another related aspect that I'll blog on next week is captions, regular and automatic. If you always have a caption, then the carriage return of regular text is built-in.

As for fill-in-the-blank forms, I think HTML forms are a handier solution than input fields. But that's a whole nother thing.

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/06/creating_xml_fo.html

[Tim]

I've figured out how to make and modify tables in writer, but I can't figure out how to get the text to wrap around the table. Some of my tables are small, and it is visually unappealing to have them take up the whole witdh of the page. Yes, I can grab the outside edges of the table and move them to make the table smaller, but the surrounding text refuses to make use of the resulting whitespace. Can you help me?

Thanks

[Solveig Haugland]

Hi Tim,

One approach is to put your table inside a frame. Then in the frame's Type tab (double-click the frame to get the properties window) be sure that both height and width are autosized.

I don't know of a way to make the table itself wrap-around-able. That would be nice a nice feature.

[Jeff]

I've struggled with deleting and cutting/pasting tables with Writer and want to thank you for your tips. Is there any way to cut a table without having a blank line above it?

[James Justin Harrell]

"If you want to move a table, just cut and paste."

I think you made a small typo. Here, I corrected it for you:

"If you want to move a table, too bad, you can't! You're gonna have to cut and paste that immobile mother!"

[Solveig Haugland]

Well, it's all a matter of how you like to phrase things. ;>

[Cutter]

I don't seem to be able to cut a table. I can select the whole table, yes, but the 'cut' option in Edit-menu is grayed out.

What's up with this? I'm using OOo writer 2.4.

[Solveig]

Hi Cutter,

When you cut a table, the content if any is cut, not the table itself. So if you have no content, the cut function is disabled. To get the table from one place to another in the doc, copy and paste, then delete by selecting the table and clicking the Delete Row or Delete Column icon on the table toolbar.

[Martin]

If you want to move table, at first insert frame, and into that frame insert table. By moving frame you're moving table.

[Ace]

Hey there,

When typing in tables, text normally will finish with one column and go to the next. (i use 1 row x 2 columns for my documents). however, now the text disappears to the bottom, out of sight, and red arrows appear. How can i just get the text to automatically got to column #2 or column #1 on the following page?

thanks!!

[Solveig]

Hi Ace,

I'll bet the Table Properties under Text Flow have something to do with it. Select the table, choose Table > Table Properties, Text Flow tab. Be sure the row is allowed to break, to split over pages, and just generally check every tab and be sure nothing looks too restrictive.

[Ace]

Well, that seemed to get rid of the red arrows, but the text still disappears. I can hit backspace and pull the text back to visibility, but still... It's like the text is bound to the column, and can be pushed out of sight...almost like there is infinite space available in the column, but only the top 20 or so lines are visible....hmm....

by the way....thanks for replying so quickly!

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