Merging Tables

[Martin Nelson]

I kind of took a guess at what to put in the subject line. I¹m receiving TV
scripts in the form of Word documents from my client. The format is a
3-column table with column one showing the row number, column two providing
information as to what might appear on the screen and three giving audio
information. It is very common for these scripts to have a lot of half used
pages as if one table has ended and the next one starts at the top of the
next page ‹though I¹m not sure that¹s really what¹s happening.

I¹d like to fix these scripts to remove the empty spaces before I print
them, but I haven¹t been able to figure out how. I can¹t tell if the writer
actually started a new table when this break occurs (and I suspect, were I
to ask, they wouldn¹t know either), but I can tell that there is no hard
page break inserted and the first cell after the space is small enough to
fit on the page. Is there a way to either remove this unintentional break
(Show/Hide ¶ doesn¹t reveal any hard break) or to merge tables?

Thanks,
--
Martin

I'm running
Macintosh G5, Dual 2GB
2.5 GB RAM
OS X.4.8
MS Office X Service Release 1

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Martin:

Select the table and turn on "Allow row to break over pages".

See the help topic "Prevent a table row from breaking across pages"

Warning: When you do this, chances are you will find out why the original
author did NOT do it... The text in Column 2 will not align with the text
in Column 3, and you will get complaints

Cheers

I kind of took a guess at what to put in the subject line. I¹m receiving TV
scripts in the form of Word documents from my client. The format is a
3-column table with column one showing the row number, column two providing
information as to what might appear on the screen and three giving audio
information. It is very common for these scripts to have a lot of half used
pages as if one table has ended and the next one starts at the top of the
next page ‹though I¹m not sure that¹s really what¹s happening.

I¹d like to fix these scripts to remove the empty spaces before I print
them, but I haven¹t been able to figure out how. I can¹t tell if the writer
actually started a new table when this break occurs (and I suspect, were I
to ask, they wouldn¹t know either), but I can tell that there is no hard
page break inserted and the first cell after the space is small enough to
fit on the page. Is there a way to either remove this unintentional break
(Show/Hide ¶ doesn¹t reveal any hard break) or to merge tables?

Thanks,

--

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

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Martin Nelson]

Show/Hide didn't show any extra paragraphs and, while Line & Page Breaks had
been set, clearing it didn't help.

Curiouser and curiouser.

 

[Martin Nelson]

Nope, that didn't do it either.

Hi Martin:

Select the table and turn on "Allow row to break over pages".

See the help topic "Prevent a table row from breaking across pages"

Warning: When you do this, chances are you will find out why the original
author did NOT do it... The text in Column 2 will not align with the text
in Column 3, and you will get complaints

Cheers

 

[Martin Nelson]

Also Bob, I notice no matter how many times I deselect "Page Before" it is
always dashed when I return to Format>Paragraph

 

[CyberTaz]

OK - try going to the first row of a table that starts on something other
than page 1, then go into Format>Paragraph & remove the Page Break Before
for just the one table at a time. Sometimes trying to make a 'wholesale'
change when there is a mixture of the same attributes in the same selection
can be ineffective.

Another thought - although it sounds like you're on the right track - click
in one of the table then go to Table>Table Properties - Table & see if
"Around" is selected in Text Wrapping. If so click the Positioning button &
see if that sheds any light on the matter.

This one's a *Long* long shot - make sure that Table>Gridlines is active &
see if the creator may have simply kept inserting empty rows to get to the
next page after completing content on the previous.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Martin Nelson]

Bob,

OK, that was interesting: I went to the first page after a gap, clicked in
the far left cell, chose Format>Paragraph>Line and Page Breaks and Page
break before wasn't selected. BUT when I tried to OK out I get "The indent
size is too large." I haven't touched the Indents and Spacing tab; they are
as they were when I received the file. They read "Alignment: Left," "Outline
Level: Level 1," Indentation both left and right is 0" and Special is
Hanging By .25." I don't know if any of that is relevant, because, in this
context, I don't know what 'Special' and 'Hanging' mean. Since Page break
before didn't need to be unselected anyway, I Canceled out.

To your other two suggestions, Text wrapping isn't selected and I've got a
visible grid and the only thing that appears between one table and the next
in Show/Hide ¶ is that weird little convex square icon that appears at the
end of everything. What is that called anyway and what does it indicate?

I don't know if this is useful, but in every case the row following the gap
is always small enough to fit on the previous page intact.

I receive scripts formatted like this from different clients all the time
and I almost always encounter this problem. That's why I'm pursuing this
now. I do appreciate your help.

Martin

 

[Martin Nelson]

Of course John, my apologies; that¹s what comes from responding to messages
just before bed. To elaborate on your earlier suggestions, when I selected
the table and went to Table Properties>Allow row to break over pages, it was
not originally selected, but selecting it changed nothing. The leading rows
after the gaps, by the way, are always small enough to fit on the previous
pages.

I do know how to tell whether this is one or multiple tables. There are no
special marks in Show/Hide ¶ just before or after a gap. But if they are
multiple tables is there a way to merge them?

I also don¹t know whether they are single tables or nested tables (tables
within tables). How do I check? You wrote to ³Check for cells straddling
columns or cells straddling rows.² I¹m not sure what you mean. Sorry.

EUREKA!! I just now selected all and chose Clear Formatting from the Format
window and all the gaps went away. Nothing else went awry that I can spot.
The people who provide me with these scripts are typically professional
writers, but they don¹t always have full formatting skills. Thanks so much
for your help, John. I will be using this knowledge for years to come.

Martin

 

[Martin Nelson]

John,

I had thought choosing Clear Format from the Format window fixed my problem,
but it messed up too many other aspects of the document. It turns out if I
do as you suggested and Allow row to break over pages AND deselect both Keep
with next and Page break before from Format>Paragraph everything cleans
right up.

Martin