Tables

A table is a grid of cells, and each cell holds its own paragraphs. You type in a cell the same way you type anywhere else. The table controls appear while the caret is in a table: Table and Shading groups on the Insert tab, and a row of small controls under the table itself.

Insert a table

1. Put the caret in the paragraph the table should follow.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Insert a table.

Writer inserts a table with three rows and three columns, right after that paragraph, and puts the caret in the first cell. The new table has:

• A header row with Column 1, Column 2 and Column 3 in bold.
• Thin light grey borders on every edge.
• Columns of equal width, filling the text column.

If the table is the last thing in the document, Writer adds an empty paragraph after it so you can type below the table.

Type in a table

• Click in a cell and type.
• Press Return to start a new paragraph inside the cell.
• Formatting, alignment and styles work in a cell as they do in any paragraph.
• At the start of a cell, Delete (Backspace on Windows and Linux) does nothing, so you can’t join a cell to what is above the table by accident.

Move between cells

When you arrive in a cell with Tab, its text is selected, so you can type over it.

The controls under a table

While the caret is in a table, a row of small buttons appears under it. The hint at the right says “Tab moves to the next cell”.

Merge and split cells

Merge cells across

1. Put the caret in the left-hand cell.
2. Under the table, click Merge with the cell to the right.

The two cells become one cell spanning both columns. Repeat to merge more cells. The button is dimmed when there is nothing to the right (“Nothing to the right to merge with”).

Merge cells down

1. Put the caret in the lower cell.
2. Under the table, click Merge with the cell above.

The two cells become one cell spanning both rows, and the lower cell’s text moves up into it. In the first row the button is dimmed (“Nothing above to merge with”).

Split a merged cell

1. Put the caret in a cell that was merged across.
2. Under the table, click Split this cell back up.

The cell becomes separate cells again, one per column it spanned. The text stays in the first of them.

To take back a merge down, click Undo straight after merging, or click Split this cell back up before you move the caret.

Borders

While the caret is in a table, the Table group on the Insert tab has two border buttons:

The highlighted button shows whether the table has visible borders. Borders from Word documents — including their widths and colours — are drawn and kept.

A table with no borders is shown on screen with faint guide lines so you can see its cells. The guide lines aren’t saved or printed.

Header rows

A header row labels the columns below it. Screen readers use it to announce which column a cell is in, and Word repeats it at the top of each page when a table runs onto more than one page.

1. Put the caret in the row.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Table group, click the header row button (Make this a header row — Word repeats it at the top of each page a long table runs onto).

Click it again (Not a header row) to turn it off. On screen, header rows have a light shaded background. In an exported or printed PDF, header rows are drawn in bold with a light background.

The Accessibility checker reports a table with no header row, and a header cell with no text.

Column widths

To make all the columns the same width:

1. Put the caret in the table.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Table group, click Give every column the same width.

The columns share the width of the text column equally. Column widths from Word documents are kept and drawn.

Cell shading

1. Put the caret in the cell.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Shading group, click a swatch: no shading (the swatch with a slash), grey, blue, green or amber.

The swatch for the cell’s current shading has a highlighted outline. Shading from Word documents, in any colour, is drawn and kept.

Tables and track changes

With track changes on:

• A row you add is marked as an inserted row and tinted green.
• A row you delete isn’t removed. It is marked as a deleted row, tinted red, and its text is struck through.
• If you delete a row that you added yourself in this review, it is removed straight away.
• Typing and formatting inside cells are recorded like any other text.

Rows marked this way are listed in the reviewing pane as Inserted a row or Deleted a row. Accepting or rejecting one resolves the whole row. See Comments, track changes and compare.

Tables from Word documents

• Merged cells, borders, cell shading, header rows and column widths are drawn.
• Tables you don’t edit are saved exactly as they were read.

Tables in exports