formatting tables in microsoft word

[jenbad108]

Hello,
I am formatting 1000 recipes in microsoft word.

I developed a macro that converts the recipe listing (currently into 2
columns) into a table, as I need to avoid overusing section breaks.

My question is this: Is there any way that I can get a table to list
from colum top to bottom before beginning another column?

i.e. instead of having text appear like this (which is how the table
automatically formats)
A B
C D

I would like it to appear like this:
A C
B D

Any ideas on how I can achieve this?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Jennifer

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Jennifer:

I am assuming that your original recipe is a single-column list, one
paragraph per column?

The best way to quickly and easily produce the sorting you want is to use
snaking columns ("newspaper columns").

Study the help topic " Create newspaper columns to continue a story in the
next column on the same page" and search for the word "newspaper" in the
Help to read the rest of the information.

Yes, you will get two section breaks for each recipe. That won't matter if
you use the method described in the help. Ensure that the style you use for
the recipe paragraphs has the Paragraph>Line and Page Breaks property "Keep
Lines Together" switched ON and the Window/Orphan property switched OFF to
ensure that the lines do not get split at the bottom of the column.

Forcing a Table to do what you want is a little convoluted:

1) Select the entries

2) Table>Convert>Text to Table

Specify "Paragraphs" for "Separate text at". The number of Columns should
automatically read "1", if it doesn't, change it to "1"

3) Create the table

4) Select the only column currently in the table

5) Use Table>Insert>Columns to the right

6) Select from half-way down the left column to the bottom and Cut

7) Place the insertion point in the top of the right column and Paste

8) Delete the blank rows

Hope this helps

Hello,
I am formatting 1000 recipes in microsoft word.

I developed a macro that converts the recipe listing (currently into 2
columns) into a table, as I need to avoid overusing section breaks.

My question is this: Is there any way that I can get a table to list
from colum top to bottom before beginning another column?

i.e. instead of having text appear like this (which is how the table
automatically formats)
A B
C D

I would like it to appear like this:
A C
B D

Any ideas on how I can achieve this?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Jennifer

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[jenbad108]

Dear John,
Thank you for your input. I am not having success in using the colum
formatting that you suggested, due to difficulty in geting the column
margins set the way I want them.

The desired outcome is for 2 columns. The first colum margin is
indented (begins) at 1.25. The second colum begins at 3.5 (no indent).
The width of both columns is 2.25, with 0 space between columns.

Is there a way I can set the margins for both columns differently?
(i.e. no indent for the 2nd column?). I also need a hanging indent for
occasional scenarios when one ingredient listing exceeds the column
width, and haven't been able to figure out how to do this in the column
command, and understand that I've selecting text and moving the margins
in the ruler is not a good way obtain my desired outcome.

If need be I can email an attachment with the layout that I would like
to clearly illustrate the formatting that I am looking for.

I also want to verify: I have over 1000 recipeis to format in the same
document. I understand from an earlier email from you that too many
section breaks compromise the stability of a document. Will this be the
case if I use colum formatting instead of table formatting?

Thanks so much for your help!
Best,
Jen

 

[jenbad108]

Dear John,
After reading your message and reviewing Woody's Seven Laws of Style
(thanks for the reference), I set about trying to clean up my document.
While doing so, the doc crashed multiple times. I did a Maggie on it,
according to your instructions. A couple of times after doing this,
closing the doc, and opening it again, I got a message that read: "Word
automatically saved changes to the normal document template. Do you
want to load it?" What doest this mean? It confused me, as I had
renamed the normal template to something else. The rename still had
normal in the root, but I changed it to Normalcopy.

Also, after reading in Woody's Seven Laws of Style that empty paragraph
marks aren't kosher , I set about deleting them in my document, as I
have some of them. When doing so, I got a pretty severe crash. When I
tried to open it I got the following message: "There is an
unrecoverable disk error on the file Lesson MasterRescue.doc. The disk
you are working on has a media problem that prevents Word from using
it. Try the following: -Try formatting another disk. -Save the doc to
another disk."
What does "save it to another *disk* mean? Just save it in another
location on my computer?
I can't get into that file to save it. I do have an fairly recent
earlier version that I can work from, but this doc is so darn buggy
that I am beginning to wonder if by working on it I am making things
worse.
Any suggestions? I'm feeling a bit over my head.

Best,
Jen

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

A complicated situation that doesn't sound good....

**what version of Word and OS are you using?**

It confused me, as I had
renamed the normal template to something else. The rename still had
normal in the root, but I changed it to Normalcopy.

Okay, why? Word needs a Normal template to function, if you change the name
it will create a new one.

I haven't a clue about the disk error problem--you could try moving it to
another location, but since you have a recent backup, you might just want to
go back.

Make a copy of your recent backup.

Then run the various corrupt document fixes on it, which assuming you are in
Word X or 2004, you will find here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DocumentCorruption.htm
(hit reload a few times in Safari, if that doesn't work, try another
browser)

If I were you, I'd probably also run some maintenance on my computer.

DM

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Once your document appears to be stable (see my other message), make another
backup copy. Then here are some suggestions re formatting, from your long
ago unanswered message.

Thank you for your input. I am not having success in using the colum
formatting that you suggested, due to difficulty in geting the column
margins set the way I want them.

The desired outcome is for 2 columns. The first colum margin is
indented (begins) at 1.25. The second colum begins at 3.5 (no indent).
The width of both columns is 2.25, with 0 space between columns.

Is there a way I can set the margins for both columns differently?
(i.e. no indent for the 2nd column?).

There's quite a lot of settings available in the Format | Columns dialog. It
doesn't look like you can get zero space between, and I can't figure out how
to indent only one column.

I also need a hanging indent for
occasional scenarios when one ingredient listing exceeds the column
width, and haven't been able to figure out how to do this in the column
command, and understand that I've selecting text and moving the margins
in the ruler is not a good way obtain my desired outcome.

The best, though slightly complicated way to do this, would be to create a
style for Ingredients. Define the style such that it includes a hanging
indent, but no regular indent.

Okay, here's a possibility, I think, to get what you want. Select a few
pages, copy them into a new doc, and play around to see if this works.

Format the document margins at 1.25 in.

Create a style Ingredients. Base it on no style. Give it a hanging indent,
but no regular indent. This is the style for your ingredients, do whatever
you need to do to it.

Create a style Recipe. Base it on no style. This is the style for your
directions, format it however you want it to look. Give Recipe a negative
left indent (probably -.25) so that it's text will start at 1 in. I think
this should give you the appearance of one column indented from the text,
without indenting the other column.

There are certain refinements that could be valuable, but let's see if this
gets the basics first.