Word: Combine Two Tables

Contributor Icon Contributed by MickeyMouse Date Icon April 3, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows

In Microsoft Word, combining two tables (or appending one to another) can be tricky. Here is how to make the combination of tables as easy as possible.


Combining tables in Word is supposed to be easy. You should be able to put one table against another and the two combine. However, frequently this does not work and you get something that looks like this:

word_table

To combine these tables, double-click the little cross-in-a-box for the table. This will open up the properties for that table. Click the Table tab and change Text Wrapping to None. Then click OK and repeat this for the other table.

word_table_properties

After the text wrapping is changed on both tables, they will combine if they are close to each other. Use the mouse to adjust the lines to make the sections of the table appear the same. One table should now be appending to another and the tables are indeed combined into one…

word_table2

(If you still have problems combining the two, hit CTRL-SHIFT-8 to display mark-up. Delete any paragraph symbols that may be interferring with the combination of the table. Repeat the CTRL-SHIFT-8 to hide the mark up again once done.)

Previous recipe | Next recipe |
 
  • F. Ehrhardt
    Thanks for the suggestions, but they DO NOT WORK in Word 07.
  • jeff
    you press control delete.
  • dula
    this is useful stuff guys.. thank you
  • Jin
    yes they do work, i tried those in word 2007 and worked fine, this word version is so weird, sometimes you can even merge table just by deleting the space between them
  • aman
    thanks
  • sarita
    Thank you!! It helped a lot :-)
  • billstill
    Great! This is the first thing that has worked, and I use Word 2007.
    Two enhancements:
    1. Frequently when these tables need combining, the previous author has manually inserted a new Table Header Row at the top of every page. You will need to manually highlight that row and then delete it, then click on "Repeat Header Rows".
    2. Almost always, even after you have eliminated the manual Page Breaks, still a Return symbol will persist between the tables you are trying to combine. You can't eliminate that by hitting the Backspace key, you have hit the Delete key.
blog comments powered by Disqus