Microsoft Office 2000

Lesson 2: Word 2000 (Part 2)

Creating Tables and Forms

Do you have text that you need to organize in a grid or tabular format? Do you have a form that you need to create? In this lesson we'll learn to organize the content of your document into tables for clarity, and to create and print a custom-designed form.

First, let's look at tables. You can use the Menu option or the Standard Toolbar to create a simple table.

To create a table using the Menu option:

Click in the location of the document where you want to insert your table
Click Table - Insert - Table
In Table size click to select the Number of columns and Number of rows

See example of inserting a Table

You can also click on the Table button in the Standard Toolbar and then drag to select the number of columns and rows you want.

Using Table AutoFormat
You can use the Table AutoFormat command to quickly give a table a professional look with borders, fonts, and shading.

To format a table with Table AutoFormat:

Click on the table to select it
On the Table menu, click Table AutoFormat
In the Formats box, click the format you want
Select the options you want
Click on OK

See example of Table AutoFormat

To display or hide gridlines in a table

On the Table menu, click Show Gridlines or Hide Gridlines

Tables are a really great way to organize information clearly. Depending on the layout of your document there will be times when you will want the gridlines to be displayed and other times when you will want to hide the gridlines. The best way to know is to just test it out and see how it looks.

You can also use the table feature to help organize content when saving your document as a web page. Professional webmasters cringe at the use of Word to create web pages and at using tables to format the layout of entire pages. When you need to create a nice looking web page quickly, however, the convenience of using Word (and using tables to structure content) outweighs anyone's particular preference!

For additional information on creating and using tables see Creating Tables in Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual Quick Start Guite pp. 83-94.

Now let's move on to creating a form. If you need to create a form quickly, Word can help you create a professional-looking form in no time!

Creating a Printed Form

Design the form on paper with your content and layout.
To enable the Forms toolbar, click on View - Toolbars - Forms
Type the content of your form
To insert a text box where users can enter their responses, click in the document where you want the text box and then click Text Form Field
several times. Click on Form Field Shading if necessary in order to see your text box
To insert check boxes that list choices for users to select, click in the document and then click Check Box Form Field
Click on File - Save As and give your form a name
Click on File - Print or the Print button on the Standard Toolbar to print the form.

Congratulations! In this lesson you have learned to use the essential features of Microsoft Word 2000 including formatting fonts, paragraphs and columns; using templates and wizards; and creating tables and forms.

Lesson 2 Bibliography:

Formatting Text in Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide pp. 41-71
Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide pp. 58-60
Turning on Paragraph Marks in Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide p. 43
Formatting Pages in Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual Quick Start Guide pp. 73–81
Browse Chapter 3 Applying Advanced Formatting Techniques in Microsoft Office 2000 User Specialist Study Guide
Browse Chapter 4 Working with Complex Documents in Microsoft Office 2000 User Specialist Study Guide
Creating Tables in Microsoft Office 2000 for Windows: Visual Quick Start Guite pp. 83-94