Word: Combine Two Tables
Posted by MickeyMouse in 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:
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.
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…
(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.)
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October 22, 2008 at 2:04 pm, F. Ehrhardt said:
Thanks for the suggestions, but they DO NOT WORK in Word 07.
November 17, 2008 at 5:16 pm, jeff said:
you press control delete.
May 15, 2012 at 4:19 pm, Steve said:
> Jeff has the easy way: position your cursor between the tables and press Ctrl and Del at the same time.
November 24, 2008 at 4:27 am, dula said:
this is useful stuff guys.. thank you
March 03, 2009 at 6:55 pm, Jin said:
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
June 30, 2011 at 7:29 pm, Nn_walters said:
No. It doesn’t. In Word 2007 the text wrapping setting is already set to ‘None’. This does not work. The only way to do this is to copy the table (make sure to only select the table) that you want to join to your existing table. Place the cursor to the right of the last row of the last column (bottom right corner of the table) of the cell you want to join it to. Then paste. You will have to do some minor adjusting but this is the only I’ve found that works.
June 30, 2011 at 7:31 pm, Nn_walters said:
No. It doesn’t. In Word 2007 the text wrapping setting is already set to ‘None’. This does not work. The only way to do this is to copy the table (make sure to only select the table) that you want to join to your existing table. Place the cursor to the right of the last row of the last column (bottom right corner of the table) of the TABLE you want to join it to (your existing table). Then paste. You will have to do some minor adjusting but this is the only I’ve found that works.
March 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm, aman said:
thanks
June 17, 2009 at 2:57 pm, sarita said:
Thank you!! It helped a lot
September 22, 2009 at 12:45 pm, Anonymous said:
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.
December 22, 2009 at 6:04 am, Anonymous said:
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP
February 22, 2010 at 3:47 pm, Anonymous said:
Very nice
July 16, 2010 at 7:40 am, Mohitaithani5683 2008 said:
thank you
it helped!
July 22, 2010 at 7:14 pm, Michael Daly said:
I couldn’t get this method to work with my Word 2003. I couldn’t successfully delete a paragraph mark. But when I copied and pasted the rows of each table into a new, blank document, I was able to get the two tables to become one table in the new document. Then I copied the new combined table and pasted it in place of the messed-up table in the original document.
September 29, 2010 at 10:54 pm, Len_cop said:
If erasing the paragraph marks do not work (like mine) then create a new row above the first row of the paragraph mark (or space between the two tables). Select the entire first row of table 2 (which is blank) and the space (or paragraph mark) then delete them both.
Super frustrated with new hot asses software that doesn’t do the basics….
March 22, 2011 at 10:49 am, Cbzee2 said:
Thank you, it worked for me.
May 03, 2011 at 8:26 pm, Wers64 said:
I just tried deleting the space between two equal-column tables. Did not work. Afterwards, i selected the first table, used “Change to text” option with tab delimiters. Did the same with the second table. Then i noticed that the paragraph spacing between table one and two was different. fixed it an the selected all text (contents from table one and two) and “Inserted” a Table, with option “Table”. Finally i got what i needed ! Terrible for Word 2007 ! Word 2003 was so easy!
June 11, 2011 at 5:02 pm, Esprit64 said:
I had one table that became corrupted mid-table. Every time that I tried to remove the corrupted information, the table would not allow me to save it, the document closed, re-opened, and I was back to square #1.
The first thing I did was to make a page break above and below the corrupted table part. I was then able to remove the corrupted information to another blank document to deal with its separate issues in that document. After I cleaned up that info in the separate document, I returned it clean to my original table.
Back to the original table, it now would not combine. I once again split it by page break into two separate tables. For each table part, I chose the table part, I went to Table Auto Format and chose “Table Theme.” I was then able to combine the two tables. After the tables were combined, sorted, I went back to BORDERS/SHADING, and restored my original settings.
August 19, 2011 at 5:55 am, Tim said:
it works, thank you very much
October 05, 2011 at 12:52 pm, Cel said:
I deleted the gap between the two tables, and they merged. I used Word 2007.
October 30, 2011 at 11:17 pm, SD said:
JUST figured this out for Windows for Mac 2011: Just select the tables you want merged and right click and select “Mail Merge” from the drop down menu. (Right clicking on a mac is ‘control’ + click. The shortcut is command + V when the tables are selected. You’re welcome.
October 30, 2011 at 11:33 pm, SD said:
Scratch that…it merged them by replacing cells not stacking the tables. grr
November 08, 2011 at 3:40 pm, ID said:
Thanks a lot, got tired of cursing at word developers… )-D
January 05, 2012 at 8:18 am, Petre said:
Great!!! thank you very much, it works!!!
January 19, 2012 at 2:38 pm, anamca said:
Nothing suggested here, or several other forums, worked for me.
I sorted my split table by copying first one half, then the other into Excel, with no row between, as I wanted them, then selecting the lot, copying and pasting back into Word, which then needed only minor adjustment of column widths, but at least there was only one lot!
January 23, 2012 at 12:54 pm, JP said:
Very irritating! You used to simply put the two tables together then double-click between the two tables that you would put as close to each other as possible and voila, they attached!
Now, it is utterly impossible–at least with the complex table I created and am trying to use again with variations to it. Extraordinarily annoying as well as taking HOURS to redo!
Thanks for the pathetic upgrade!
January 27, 2012 at 4:06 am, JeB said:
This was just the answer I needed. The form had been created by someone else but I needed to adapt it and was experience difficulty until I followed these instructions to merge the tables.
Many thanks.
March 28, 2012 at 2:11 pm, CBF said:
Worked like a charm in Word 2010!