© Elusive Creations 2002

Today’s fast paced world drives many of us to absorb information given to us in sound bites. We look for ways to organize information in a format that helps us organize our thought processes.

Tabbed text is a good way to keep your text in alignment when you need a column like structure, but tabbed text can be difficult to manipulate when you have large amounts of information to keep organized. Using a table can provide a better structure and greater flexibility.

Word provides a way to create a table out of tabbed text. You will find the command to convert Text to a Table on the Table Menu. Word will “guess” the number of columns and rows necessary to accommodate the text you have selected. Generally speaking, when you activate the command, you will accept the default settings in the dialog box.

To convert the tabbed text:
? Select the block of text you want to convert
? Choose Table/Convert Text to Table command
? Adjust the # of columns and rows as needed
? Select Separate text at “Tabs”
? Click on OK

Depending on the structure of the pre-selected tabbed text, you will probably need to make some adjustments to the table structure after the conversion process takes place. It’s not unusually to need to adjust column width, decimal alignments, blank columns, and overall formatting choices. Once the text has been converted, all the functionality provided by a table structure is available to your text.

Discover the power of organizing your text using a table. Try this technique the next time you have a list of tabbed text.

Learn more:
Using Tabbed Text in MS Word
MS Word Table Techniques – Navigation and Selecting
Word - Table Techniques II – Column & Row Width, Tab Stops, and Bullets


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