Word 2010: Creating justified columns Thread poster: Andy S
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Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
German to English
I am translating a document, an inventory of medical costs, where I need to present the TT in two columns, essentially a list of items on the right of the page and the figures in a separate, narrower column on the right of the page. I am working from a hard copy ST, not an electronic one where I can keep the ST formatting, unfortunatelty.
I have already done the translation and now need to apply formatting. The Columns feature in Word seems useless for my purpose as it just grabs ... See more I am translating a document, an inventory of medical costs, where I need to present the TT in two columns, essentially a list of items on the right of the page and the figures in a separate, narrower column on the right of the page. I am working from a hard copy ST, not an electronic one where I can keep the ST formatting, unfortunatelty.
I have already done the translation and now need to apply formatting. The Columns feature in Word seems useless for my purpose as it just grabs the text including the figures and mixes it all together .
If you can visualise what I want, it is the list of items on the left with a neat right-edge justification, and them the figures to the left formatted so that the decimal points are all in alignment.
Is it possible to achieve that justification of the text "column" without using the Columns feature?
Should I go the tab stop route and if so, how do I get the decimal points to line up? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alan Halls 
Germany
Local time: 18:21
German to English
| Table solution instead of columns | Sep 20, 2012 |
Hi Andrew
I have worked with various versions of Word for some years and have usually solved the kind of problem you are describing by using the table function. You can insert a table with the required number of columns and rows easily, make it either show or hide the lines round the table and/cells and set up one tab in the right-hand column that aligns all the figures so the decimal points are vertically in-line. I would seriously not recommend the tabstop route!
Word 2010 i... See more Hi Andrew
I have worked with various versions of Word for some years and have usually solved the kind of problem you are describing by using the table function. You can insert a table with the required number of columns and rows easily, make it either show or hide the lines round the table and/cells and set up one tab in the right-hand column that aligns all the figures so the decimal points are vertically in-line. I would seriously not recommend the tabstop route!
Word 2010 is often awkward due to its ribbon layout, I find, but the functions are all there.
Insert a table by clicking the Insert tab, quite far to the left is then the Tables section. Select the grid you need, i.e. the number of columns and rows by clicking the top left-hand cell and dragging the mouse pointer down and across. If you're going to need lots more rows than you can select, instead of marking the cells, click Insert Table below the matrix and you can enter the number of rows and columns.
Once the table appears on the page, it will have the columns all the same width. Click and drag the vertical separator(s) to give you the widths you need.
To set up a decimal tab on one column, select the entire column by hovering the mouse pointer just above the top line of the column and it changes to a down arrow. Click now and you select that column.
Above the outline of the page in Word (assuming you are in Print Layout mode), you will see the ruler and to the far left of that a white square with what looks like a small capital L in it. This is the selection box for tabs. Clicking this toggles through the various tab types. One that looks like an inverted capital T with a dot to the right of the bar is the decimal tab.
Leave that tab type visible in the box.
With the column still selected, click and drag in the ruler to the place where you want your decimal points to line up. Then let go the mouse button. If you enter decimal figures in the cells that were marked, they should align correctly. If the text caret / cursor tries to start at the left-hand side of the cell, instead of under the decimal tab marker, press CTRL+Tab (in a table, you can't just press Tab, because that jumps to the next cell, you have to use CTRL+Tab).
Finally, you can adjust the sides of your table by clicking and dragging the vertical bars and then, if you want to hide or change the table outline, mark all the columns you want to change (mouse pointer over the top of the column) and a pop-up appears with an option that allows you to select or deselect the individual outlines.
Did that help?
If anything is unclear, post a query and I'll see if I can be more specific!
AH ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 10:21
Dutch to English
+ ...
Like Alan, I would also use a table, although I do the formatting in a slightly different way. I use tables for anything and everything that needs to be lined up in a certain way.
The problem is, you have to create the table before you start the translation. I'm afraid that, if you wanted to go that route, all you can do now is start over again. That may be worth it though, because it would save you a big headache. In the document as it is now, you may still be able to line up the d... See more Like Alan, I would also use a table, although I do the formatting in a slightly different way. I use tables for anything and everything that needs to be lined up in a certain way.
The problem is, you have to create the table before you start the translation. I'm afraid that, if you wanted to go that route, all you can do now is start over again. That may be worth it though, because it would save you a big headache. In the document as it is now, you may still be able to line up the decimal points by setting a decimal tab - that may be worth a try. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
German to English
TOPIC STARTER | Both helpful explanations... | Sep 21, 2012 |
Thankyou both of you for your helpful explanations.
I was wondering whether it was now too late to insert the existing text into a table and it seems from Tina's explanation that it indeed is so.
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Tony M
France
Local time: 18:21
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | Not too late? | Sep 21, 2012 |
Andrew Stucken wrote:
I was wondering whether it was now too late to insert the existing text into a table and it seems from Tina's explanation that it indeed is so.
I'm not so sure, Andrew!
I haven't been following this thread from the start, but in general terms, and at least with earlier versions of Word, it was certainly possible to select existing text and use the Tables > Convert text to table command to turn the selected text into a table. Doing so does require the text to be delimited in some way so Word knows where to break it; if your text is not formatted ideally, you might need to do a bit of playing around first; for example, you may need to find a way to search and replace in order to have a suitable character in the right place to provide the column (and/or line) breaks.
But I usually find that with a bit of careful thought before I start, and a little pre-processing if necessary, I can turn almost any existing text into a table formatted at least approximately to what I need.
However, re-reading your initial post, it seems to me that simply using a decimal tab would be the simplest solution for you. What punctuation or character(s) currently separate your words from your figures? If there is some kind of consistent symbol, or even say a double space, then it should be easy to use search-&-replace to insert a tab character, and then simply set up a decimal tab on your top ruler (with 'All' already selected) in order to place your decimal-aligned figures column just where you want it.
If there is no way to discriminate between the words and figures, then you might have to resort to manually inserting a 'Tab' in front of each figure — however, I'm sure someone more experienced than myself would be able to tell you how to do that automatically too.
[Edited at 2012-09-21 15:47 GMT]
| | | | Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 10:21
Dutch to English
+ ...
| You could experiment | Sep 21, 2012 |
As Tony suggests, you could try converting the text to a table but sometimes this results in a disaster.
You could also try blocking the entire page and inserting a decimal tab (in PARAGRAPH - TABS). I just tried that with a little bit of text + numbers and it worked well for lining up the numbers but the previous column also moved to the right. Certainly you could experiment a little but the time you spend might be better spent creating a table and starting over (i.m.o.).
| | | | Tony M
France
Local time: 18:21
Member
French to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Tina Vonhof wrote:
...you could try converting the text to a table but sometimes this results in a disaster.
With a little bit of planning ahead, and some experimentation on a copy of your document, you should be able to make it work; I have done this many, many times, and never been beaten yet! However, your need appears to be a lot simpler than that.
Tina Vonhof wrote:
You could also try blocking the entire page and inserting a decimal tab... I just tried that ... and it worked well for lining up the numbers but the previous column also moved to the right.
That's simply because you must have failed to insert a 'Tab' between the words and figures, so the whole lot stayed 'stuck together' and got aligned on the decimals. Provided Andrew can find a satisfactory method for inserting the tabs in the right places, then this is an easy-peasy, lightning-quick solution.
| | | | Alan Halls
Germany
Local time: 18:21
German to English
| Converting text to table in Word 2010 | Sep 22, 2012 |
Hello again Andrew
Just to confirm, as Tony said, that it is indeed possible to convert an existing tap-separated list into a nice tidy table in Word.
I would recommend, however, always making a copy of the file before manipulating things.
Basically, if you have a list where the columns are separated by tabs, it's easy.
A crucial point is to ensure there is only one tab between adjacent entries as Word will use the tabs as a signal to make a table column.... See more Hello again Andrew
Just to confirm, as Tony said, that it is indeed possible to convert an existing tap-separated list into a nice tidy table in Word.
I would recommend, however, always making a copy of the file before manipulating things.
Basically, if you have a list where the columns are separated by tabs, it's easy.
A crucial point is to ensure there is only one tab between adjacent entries as Word will use the tabs as a signal to make a table column. So if, for appearance sake, you have used three tabs to get the entry where you want it, Word will assume you want three columns, two of which will be empty.
So chuck out additional tabs, even though this might make your list look odd at this stage.
You can use "search & replace" to get rid of excess tabs, too. Mark the list first.
Ctrl+H opens Search & replace. Search for circumflex+t (^t) to search for tabs. You can enter, say, two in a row (^t^t) here, and in the Replace with box enter a single ^t. Then Word will find all the instances of double tabs and replace them with single ones. You will have to adapt this logic to your list, of course.
Then, mark the entire list and click Insert on the ribbon bar, then Table --> Convert text to table. Make sure the "Tabs" option is selected as the separator. If your formatting with tabs is OK, Word will display the number of columns it will generate. If this is wrong, you've got too many or too few tabs in there somewhere.
And Bob's your uncle!
I hope that helps.
Alan ▲ Collapse
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Andy S
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:21
German to English
TOPIC STARTER | Good explanations, thankyou | Sep 22, 2012 |
Thankyou Tony and Tina, again.
I have long wondered how to retrospectively insert a table so our explanations are very helpful.
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