BlogOffice

From Table to Text

This afternoon I was gathering research for a new chapter and I needed to save out some white paper info that was published in tabular form. I copied the table from the site and pasted it into my Word document and--you guessed it--I had margin-to-margin grids. I create web pages and I understand how layout tables make things easier, but they sure are a mess when all you want is the basic info quickly. So here's what I did to de-grid the text so I could keep it in readable form in my research file: Select the entire table and then choose Tools > Convert > Text to Table (yes, that seems counter-intuitive, but read on...). The grid on the document appears to get worse for the moment. Then, with the table still selected, choose Tools > Convert > Table to Text (this options wasn't available the first time because Word wasn't seeing the information as a "real" table). Now you've got usable text, no grids, and you can format it anyway you like. Simple, elegant, and it works when Clear Formatting in the Styles list won't. Happy formatting! :) k