How do I combine tables?

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Move one so that it directly follows the other, with no intervening text,
line breaks, or paragraph marks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Except that for some reason this sometimes doesn't work. I experienced this
the other day. There was absolutely nothing between the two (identically
formatted) tables; neither was floating, neither had a heading row. But they
just wouldn't join.

 

[Julian Turner]

That method certainly was the case for Word 97.

However, I have found that in later versions of word, all tables seem to be
floating by default (converted to frames when converted back to Word 97),
which does not permit this join method. The only way I can achieve this is
to cut and paste rows. This seems to be a retrograde step.

How can tables be taken out of floating mode, and put back into the document
flow as in Word 97. Or is this a permanent change?

The filter for converting back to Word 97 is also quite poor when dealing
with tables. With tables that go over more than one page, these are put in a
single frame with content being hidden.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Format | Frame: Remove frame. In later versions, Table Properties | Table |
Text wrapping: none. But even this doesn't always work. I've had tables that
were definitely *not* wrapped that still refused to join.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Hmmm... I can't replicate that problem. Once wrapping is turned off on the
tables I want to join, they join without hesitation -- even if they have
different numbers/sizes of columns.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Shall I send you a sample?

Hmmm... I can't replicate that problem. Once wrapping is turned off on the
tables I want to join, they join without hesitation -- even if they have
different numbers/sizes of columns.

 

[Bob S]

Except that for some reason this sometimes doesn't work. I experienced this
the other day. There was absolutely nothing between the two (identically
formatted) tables; neither was floating, neither had a heading row. But they
just wouldn't join.

If the two tables have different Table Styles (or equivalently,
different Table | AutoFormat settings), they won't join. But you did
say "identically formatted", so that shouldn't be the issue.

Strange...

Bob S

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Both tables were created generically using the Insert | Table button. My
default Table AutoFormat (style) is Table Normal. Although it shouldn't have
made any difference, I checked that all the table columns were the same
widths. Both tables had the same alignment, neither was wrapped; etc. The
document is one that has been reused a lot, so some corruption is not beyond
the bounds of probability.

 

[Stacy Nagyvary]

I think this is a bug in Word 2003. Any Microsoft software developers
listening? I have found a work around, but some of your fomatting might get
lost. Select one table, then hold the ctrl key while selecting the other
table. While both tables are selcted, right click and go to Table Auto
Format. Under table style, select Table Grid and click on Apply. This joins
the two tables and keeps the formatting pretty close.