Creating tables

Creating tables from scratch

  1. From the toolbar, click on the ‘Insert Table’ icon and select a table in size to match the number of rows and columns you need by dragging your mouse over the squares and clicking when done.  A 3 x 3 is a good start ie three rows and three columns. (You can add more rows or columns as you go along, by clicking in the last cell and hitting TAB)

  2. Right click in the table and select Table Properties

  3. Under Layout, change the settings for Cell padding to 5, Cell spacing to 0 and Borders to 1. Click OK

  4. Drag across all the cells with your left mouse and right click over the highlighted area

  5. Select Cell Properties

  6. Under Layout, Horizontal alignment, change the setting from ‘Default’ to ‘Left’ from the drop down list

  7. Under Layout, Vertical alignment, change the setting from ‘Default’ to ‘Top’ from the drop down list

Copying tables from Word

If you already have a table in Word format you can copy it into FrontPage.

  1. Open the Word document, click anywhere in the table and then select Table > Select > Table from the main toolbar

  2. Select Edit > Copy to copy the entire table

  3. Switch back to FrontPage and open the page in which you wish to insert the table.

  4. Press return to enter a new paragraph above where you want to insert the table.

  5. Select Edit > Paste Special from the main toolbar

  6. Tick One formatted paragraph

  7. Click OK. All of the table content now appears on the page but it is not in a table and the style is Formatted

  8. Select all the pasted text

  9. Select Table > Convert > Text to Table from the main toolbar

screenshot of Convert Text to Table dialogue box   

  1. When the Convert Text to Table window appears, under Separate text at, select Tabs

  2. Click OK. The content is now within a table but the style remains formatted

  3. Click within the table then select Table > Select > Table

  4. Select Normal from the drop-down list of styles

Setting table properties

To change the size and look of a table you need to change the settings of its properties.

  1. To set the table properties, right click within the table and select Table Properties

screenshot of Table Properties dialogue box

  1. Change the Cell padding value from 1 to 5 - the unit of measure is pixels and one pixel is a single dot on the screen. Cell padding is the amount of white space between the content and the wall of the cell. In most cases you want about five pixels of cell padding

  2. Change the Cell spacing value from 2 to 0. Cell spacing is the amount of white space between the cells and the table wall. In most cases you don't want any cell spacing

  3. Leave the Borders Size at 1. If you don't want a border to appear, set the value to zero.

  4. Click OK

  5. Under Specify width you should click the In percent button and ensure the width is set to 100.  Leave the Specify height box unchecked. (If you restrict both the width and height you may have difficulty containing all the required text and the table will need to overstretch its template to fit everything in)

Setting cell properties

To change the text alignment and column widths of a table you need to change the settings of its cell properties.

  1. Content within a table cell is by default vertically-aligned to the middle. To change the alignment, first select the cells to alter

  2. Right-click the selected cells and choose Cell Properties

screenshot of Cell Properties dialogue box

  1. Change the Vertical alignment value to read Top

  2. Click OK

  3. You should usually ensure that the cell with the name of the column is set as the 'Header cell'. This can be done in FrontPage via the cell properties function

  4. Setting a 'Header cell' will centre the text but you can override this using the 'align left' button.

  5. To change the width of a column, select the complete column by dragging down with your left mouse.

  6. Right-click the selected cells and choose Cell Properties

  7. Set the width of the column to a suitable percentage of 100.

Make sure the combined width of all columns does not exceed 100%

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