[Originally appeared 2000.]
From the list of ten questions about tables begun in Word of Law No. 20, we are left with questions 9 and 10. Having already broken the order of the questions several times, this column will focus on the developments in tables in Word 2000. As asked in Word of Law No. 20, the question was:
How does Word 2000 change table behavior? What happens when tables formatted in Word 6 and Word 97 get converted to Word 2000?
Word 2000 introduces many new capabilities and controls for Word tables and reorganizes the table menu on Word’s Menu Bar. These are one of the most changed areas of Word’s functionality between Word 97 and Word 2000. For many organizations at this time, compatibility between use of Word 2000 and Word 97 remains very important. Very few large organizations have converted completely to Word 2000, and even those that have must exchange Word files with those that haven’t. Thus, we will concentrate on the reverse of the second question, what Word 2000 table features should be avoided to maintain compatibility with Word 97.
Let’s start from the perspective of the general user, and the changes in the Table section of the Word 2000 Menu Bar. The Table section of the Word 97 Menu Bar can be quite confusing. The available commands change depending on the location of the cursor. For instance, if the cursor is outside a table, the “Insert Table” button (located in the second position from the top of the menu) can be activated. If the cursor is within a table, that same position on the Table menu is replaced with an “Insert Rows” command and the position below it becomes “Delete Rows.” If, while the cursor is within a table, a column is selected, that position changes to “Insert Columns” and the position below it changes to “Delete Column.”
I have always found this behavior difficult. When working intensely with tables in Word 97, I found it effective to create a custom toolbar with six row and column controls, (Insert) Rows, Delete Rows, (Insert) Columns, Delete Columns and (Insert) Cells and Delete Cells. In fact, the last two are much less useful than the first four. All of these commands can be found within Table group of the Commands tab of the Customize dialog. Note that the commands listed as “Insert” here lack that word in the customize menu, and have only an icon with the words “Rows,” “Columns” and “Cells.”
An aside to the developer readers: The same insert row, column and cell functions can be found in the “All Commands” group of the Commands tab. There they have the name of the actual Word command, “TableInsertCell,” “TableInsertRow” and “TableInsertColumn.”
Back to the perspective of the general users. This suggestion to use a toolbar showing icons for these table controls instead of a menu also reflects my personal sense that the structuring and adjustment of table formats is primarily a visual function. The need to relate the verbs of the commands (insert, delete) to the image of the table, imposes a constant translation between word based thinking and visual thinking. Working with table, mouse and icons, purely visually, can sometimes avoid that strain. People seem to vary significantly in the way they perceive these patterns and commands, so these suggestions may not work for everyone.
Ending those excursions, it’s time to return to Word 2000. The Table menu has been restructured. Now it behaves more consistently with common Word menu behavior. The Insert, Delete and Select commands have been grouped into submenus. All of the commands are always visible, and those not available are greyed out, instead of adjusting for context as they did in Word 97.
Also new to the table menus are commands for Insert Columns to the Left, Insert Columns to the Right, Insert Rows Above and Insert Rows Below. These are all new to Word 2000, and are very helpful. The old Insert Columns and Insert Rows commands remain, but their behavior was harder to control, especially in the first or last rows or column of a table.
Use of these commands creates no compatibility risk between Word 2000 and Word 97 tables. The inserted rows or columns have no special Word 2000 characteristics or properties. Word 2000 users, feel free to use and enjoy them.
The next new section in the Word 2000 Table menu is the AutoFit section. This contains new commands to AutoFit tables to the Window (actually margins), the table Contents and for Fixed Column Width. The easiest thing to write about this capability is to avoid using it for documents that are intended to live both in Word 97 and Word 2000. Word 97 does not support the automatic resizing of columns and rows supported by table properties in Word 2000. Understanding what the Table AutoFit properties really do, and fitting them into a strategy for standardizing the formatting of tables in an organization will take some more exploration, to be left for another week.
Word 2000 supports tables inserted within tables, but Word 97 does not. Word 2000 supports new capabilities for table placement. Again, the best advice is to avoid these capabilities if documents are to live in both environments. Exploration of their benefits for table standardization can also wait.
This week’s discussion ends with the expansion of table shading colors. Actually the color fill setting for both paragraph and table cells has been expanded in Word 2000 from Word 97’s black, white, 23 shades of gray and 14 colors to the full “16 million” color set. For those who seek to use color gently in their documents, observing Ed Tufte’s instruction to employ the least effective difference to highlight or otherwise distinguish text, the expansion of the color range is most welcome. When a document that uses the additional colors is opened in Word 97, the color is mapped to a related color among Word 97’s limited set. Whether that result is satisfactory is a matter of taste.
This 2000 article originally appeared in Office Watch. Subscribe to Office Watch free at http://www.office-watch.com/.