splitting table by column?

[jackson]

can i split a table by column, or can it only be done by row?

 

[macropod]

Hi Jackson,

Word only offers a 'by row' split.

If you need (the appearance of) a vertical split, insert a new column and
format it so that is has no top/bottom cell shading.

If you need a real split, you'll have to copy/cut & paste the columns you
want to separate from the rest, and paste them into a new location. Then
you'll have to delete the copied/cut columns from the 'old' table.

Cheers

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Hi Jackson,

Or, in addition to macropod's suggestions:

You can put your tables in text boxes and put the text boxes next to each
other. Just remove all padding and borders from the text boxes, so visually
(and in fact!), it will be like having two tables next to each other...

HTH

--
Cheers!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
(e-mail address removed)
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can also put the tables side by side in snaking columns (which can be
uneven if needed).

 

[Key]

"insert a new column and format it so that is has no top/bottom cell shading."
I've used that trick in other programs, and when I tried it in Word the table Autoformating seems to have broken down.
I created a table style with alternating colours, and to hide the join I set the background colour of the split column to white. This unreliably results in all cells left of the split loosing the autoformating colour. Setting individual cells still works. The colour loss seems to correspond with changing the border, but closing and reopening the file (in an attempt to recover to a point before the loss) shows the error earlier in the process. (Even with keeping multiple files.) Oddly enough opening the files in another program shows the proper colours, although the spacing is off since the internal converter isn’t perfect. This error has repeated itself on two different tables, with multiple tries at each. (retriggering the autoformat & recustomising the table) The first table seems to hold the colours now, but I don’t want to spend more time fighting with the second, and the inevitable others that will come up. I guess the questions are: is this a know issue; and how do I get around this?
Office Update keeps failing (not my night), but it was up to date a month or two ago.
Microsoft Word 2002 (10.5815.4219) SP-2
Thank-you in advance for any advice.

 

[macropod]

Hi Key,

It might be a good idea to turn off the autoformatting before doing this. I
was also working from the assumption that the original poster wasn't trying
to split across a multi-column cell, which wouldn't make sense, and that a
suitable column of same-width cells existed from which to apply the
insertion. If either of these isn't true, there'd be a lot more work to do
working out what to do with multi-column cells and re-sizing the cell widths
for the inserted cells.

Cheers

"insert a new column and format it so that is has no top/bottom cell shading."
I've used that trick in other programs, and when I tried it in Word the

table Autoformating seems to have broken down.

I created a table style with alternating colours, and to hide the join I

set the background colour of the split column to white. This unreliably
results in all cells left of the split loosing the autoformating colour.
Setting individual cells still works. The colour loss seems to correspond
with changing the border, but closing and reopening the file (in an attempt
to recover to a point before the loss) shows the error earlier in the
process. (Even with keeping multiple files.) Oddly enough opening the files
in another program shows the proper colours, although the spacing is off
since the internal converter isn't perfect. This error has repeated itself
on two different tables, with multiple tries at each. (retriggering the
autoformat & recustomising the table) The first table seems to hold the
colours now, but I don't want to spend more time fighting with the second,
and the inevitable others that will come up. I guess the questions are: is
this a know issue; and how do I get around this?

 

[Key]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice.
I tried disabling ‘Border lines’ and ‘Tables’ from ‘AutoFormat As You Type’ and it seemed to work until I closed & reopened the document to check. The left column was white again when I reopened it.
I think I manually fixed the first table since it was only 7 rows and forgot I’d done it. The two tables (both basic layout) are 10 columns by 7 rows, and 3 by 40. I used the Table AutoFormat button to set an alternating background colour via a custom table style, and don’t think I can really skip that part of the autoformat. As I said I’ve now disabled the extra autoformating. Setting the background colour of one column (6th & 2nd respectively) to white still makes all columns to the left appear white also. (after reopening)
I haven’t used Word in several years, so if I misunderstood something, I apologise.

I realised this morning that Office Update didn’t work when I tried since I wasn’t Admin at the time. It is fully updated though.

Thanks in advance.
Key

 

[Key]

I had an opportunity to use Word 97 yesterday and did a few tests
Basic test: 10 x 10 table in a new document; apply style: table list x, then change the colour of a single column
Word XP (2002) has the shading in all columns left of the coloured one turn white after saving & reopening the file. Word 97 opens the same file with the proper colouring
Creating the test file with Word 97 allows both versions to open with the proper colour scheme
Furthermore; saving the Word XP file with a new name using Word 97 fixes the colouring issues in Word XP. I haven’t tested whether they reappear though
From what I can tell there is a bug in the parsing of the table; likely during output. So, two questions: 1. Can anyone verify this? & 2. How do I report this bug to Microsoft
Thanks
Key