Even schoolchildren know how to make a table in Word. The tabular presentation of information is widely used not only in term papers or diploma projects, but also in various kinds of documentation. However, it should be remembered that tables in Word are used only for a clearer display of information. Calculations in them, as is done in MS Excel, cannot be made. To quickly and beautifully arrange a table in Word, you need to know some features of this task.
How to make a table in Word
How to merge tables in Word
How to merge table cells in Word
How to resize a table in Word
How to convert Word table to Excel
How to extend the table in Word
How to make two tables side by side in Word
How to make a crossword puzzle in Word
How to make a table in Word
In order to insert a table in Word, you should decide how many columns and rows the table will contain. Of course, new rows and columns can be added after it is created. Adding new rows, as a rule, does not cause problems, while adding new columns often breaks the original structure of the table and will have to be reformatted.
In order to insert a table into the Word, set the cursor in the place where it will be located. In the main menu of the application, open the “Insert” tab and click on the “Table” icon. 
Select the desired number of cells with the mouse and click the left mouse button. 
You can build a table not only by selecting the squares with the mouse in the “Insert Table” window, but also using the remaining items in this section.
- «Insert Table». This way to build tables in Word can be used when the number of rows or columns exceeds the number of squares for automatically constructing tables. In addition, this method allows you to apply a more precise setting of the table structure.
This way you can specify the exact number of rows and columns of the table, set the width of the columns. If the document contains several similar tables, select the option «Remember dimensions for new tables » and save the settings. In this case, all subsequently created tables will have the same structure. - «DrawTable». When using this method, you can draw cells and columns in a table, just as it does in Paint. Unfortunately, such tables are difficult to edit and copy, therefore this method is used extremely rarely.
- «Excel Spreadsheet». If you select this item, an Excel spreadsheet will be inserted into the Word document in which you can perform various calculations.
- «Quick Tables». With the help of this section, you can use ready-made table templates, for example, the “Calendar” template, “Table with Subheads” and so on.
After the table is created, you can further design it: merge some cells, align row heights and column widths, set cell sizes, draw borders, and so on. All this is done using the context menu, called by right-clicking on the table or on individual cells.
How to merge tables in Word
Merging multiple tables in Word is a snap. For this purpose, it is sufficient to use the copy (cut) and paste function. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that the structure of the tables coincides. For example, consider the case when you need to combine two tables of the same structure. 
- Hover over the second table and select it by clicking on the appeared square with arrows in the upper left corner of it.
- From the Word main menu, select the “Cut” feature.
- Click below the first table and click the “Insert” button.
Similarly, you can combine tables with different structure. In this case, you can adjust the cell size so that the combined table has the same length of all rows or leave it as it is. For example, as shown: 
How to merge table cells in Word
There are many reasons for combining table cells in Word. For example, this may be necessary if several columns have the same header. 
To merge cells, select them with the mouse, at the top of the MS Word window, click the “Table Tools” button, go to the “Layout” tab and click the “Merge Cells” icon. 
As a result of these actions, the table will look much more beautiful. 
The cells of the same column are combined in the same way. Similarly, the range of cells can be combined.
How to resize a table in Word
Sometimes the size of the table has to be reduced, for example, in order for it to occupy less space on the sheet. This can be done in several ways.
- Manually. Left-click on the table. A small gray square will appear in the lower right corner. Place the mouse cursor on it, click the left mouse button and, without releasing it, drag the cursor towards the upper left corner. When the table reaches the desired size, release the mouse button.
- Specify the size of the table. This is a more accurate way to reduce a table in Word. Left-click anywhere in the table, and a small square with arrows will appear in the upper left corner near the table. Click on it with the right mouse button and in the appeared menu select the “Table properties” item.
In the table properties window that opens, set its width, row height and other parameters.
How to convert Word table to Excel
Moving a table from Word to Excel may be necessary, for example, if you need to perform calculations on table data. Open a Word document with the table you want to move, and select the entire table by clicking on the square in the upper left corner of it. 
Right-click anywhere in the selected table and select “Copy”. This will copy the table to the clipboard.
Open the Excel file to which you want to transfer the table from Word. Right-click on the upper left cell, where the similar cell from the Word table will be located. Select “Paste”. The inserted table can be formatted using MS Excel. 
Thus, when inserting a table from Word into an Excel workbook, each cell of the Word table is copied into a separate cell of the Excel table. After transferring tables from one application to another, it is recommended to check the correctness of the transferred data, since this is not always done correctly.
How to extend the table in Word
Creating a table in Word is often difficult to predict exactly how many rows or columns it will have. To solve this problem, it is possible to extend the tables in Word.
If you need to increase the number of rows, you can click on the last cell in the table and press the Tab key on the keyboard. If this method is not suitable for one reason or another, you need to right-click on one of the cells in the row of the table, under which there will be a new empty row. In the context menu, select “Insert” and in the appeared submenu, select “Insert Rows Below”. 
If you need to insert not one empty line, but two or three, you should select two or three already existing rows of the table and perform the same actions.
In order to extend the table in width, that is, insert one or more columns, you need to select the column, behind which the new column will be located and right-click. In the menu that appears, select the “Insert” item and select the “Insert Columns to the Right” section in the context menu. An empty column to the left of the selected column is inserted in the same way. 
What if the extended table does not fit the length of one sheet? If you do not need to transfer the table header to the next sheet, then simply insert the required number of rows, and they will automatically go to the next sheet as soon as the page ends. If in the continuation of the table on a new sheet, you need to draw its header, you should split the table in two in the place where it ends on the first sheet. It is done this way.
- Place the cursor in one of the cells of the line after which the table will be split.
- At the top of the Word menu, click the “Table Tools” button and go to the “Layout” tab. Click the “Split Table” button.
- After the table is split into two, in the second table, right-click on one of the cells in the top row, select “Insert” and “Insert Rows Above”.
- Select the header in the first table, copy it and paste it in the empty top line of the second table. If the table header is inserted incorrectly, you can create it manually.
How to make two tables side by side in Word
Arranging two tables side by side in Word is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. Here is one solution to this problem. Consider an example: you need to place a table with three columns and a table with four columns next to each other.
- Go to the “Insert” tab in the Word main menu and click on the “Table” icon. Insert a table into the document whose number of columns is equal to the sum of the columns of both tables plus one. That is, in this example you need to build a combined table with 8 columns.
- Select the column in the middle between the tables and right-click on it. In the menu that appears, select the “Borders and Shading” section.
- In the “Borders and Shading” window that opens, in the “Preview” block, remove all horizontal lines with a mouse click and click “OK” .
- As a result of these actions will be obtained two standing next to the table.
If necessary, using the same principle of invisible boundaries, you can make two tables next to each other with different numbers of rows.
How to make a crossword puzzle in Word
To do a crossword in Word is a snap. Although, this business requires hard work, especially if the crossword is big. When constructing it, the above described method of creating invisible cell boundaries is used.
- Count the maximum number of cells in a crossword puzzle horizontally and vertically and build a table in accordance with this number.
- Right-click on the table and go to its properties. On the “Row” and “Column” tabs, set the cell size to the same. For example, the length and width of 1cm.
- Make invisible cell borders where you need them.
- Arrange the number of questions in the cells of the crossword. You can change the size, font, and color of these numbers by right-clicking on them.
- If necessary, fill the color of the cell crossword. To do this, select the desired cells with the mouse, click the fill icon in the Word menu and select the desired color.
This way you can draw crosswords of any configuration and complexity.
You can create multiple variations of the same crossword puzzle in different Word files. Each of them will have their own design and content. Be sure to spell check each word. If there are a lot of copies of the same crossword puzzles, remove duplicates using special duplicate remover.