Inserting a table into your Microsoft Word document is pretty easy. However, getting it to look and act exactly how you want can be challenging. In light of this, I’m going to share five common practices I use to make my life easier when I’m designing tables.

• Use the TAB key - Need to insert a new row at the end of your table? Don’t bother clicking through the menus, simply press TAB in the last cell in the last row of your existing table and a new row will be added.
• Add multiple rows - Another shortcut for adding more than one row to your table, simply highlight cells in more than one row and insert a row as you normally would. This will insert a number of blank rows equal to the number of rows you highlighted. For instance, if I highlight the first cell in two rows of my table, then click Table -> Insert -> Rows Above, then two blank rows will be inserted above the first row with a highlighted cell. This will also work for columns.
• Easily make your table fit - This is a problem that I’ve run into multiple times: Making my table fit onto a page. Even if it’s landscape, I still may have a problem. I usually see this when I’m porting over tables from Excel. If you work in Print Layout View like me, then resizing this table can be difficult. However, if you just switch to Normal view, you can view the whole table and easily manipulate its size.
• Make your tables consistent - This is more of a design tip for your document. Making your tables consistent in your document adds a professional touch. Once you create a table, use it as a base for your other tables (read: cut and paste) if you can. Not only does this save you time by having the table pre-formatted, but it also saves you time because you don’t have to design a new table layout each time. By adding or subtracting a few columns, your table is quickly done.
• Use Auto-Numbers in your table - If you are creating any kind of table where each row has a unique number (like steps), then make sure to use the Auto-Number function for these cells (the little “1..2..3″ icon). This way, when you add a new row, that cell will automatically be populated for you. Also, the other numbers will adjust themselves if you make changes in the middle of your table.

Check out our latest article for Microsoft Excel on Freezing Rows and Columns in your spreadsheets.

You’ve probably seen this done a number of times: You’re looking at a spreadsheet, and you go to scroll down. Surprise, surprise, the top row does not move, but the other rows scroll under it. How do you work this magic? It’s called the Freeze Panes function, and it’s refreshingly simple.

There are three different ways to use the Freeze Panes function. They are listed below:

1. Freeze a Column or Columns.
2. Freeze a Row or Rows.
3. Freeze a set of Columns and Rows.

Freezing Columns

To freeze a column, click on the first cell in the column to the right of the column you want to freeze. It’s important to click on the first cell, otherwise you’ll end up freezing the rows above the selected cell as well. I find that the easiest thing to do is to just highlight the entire column next to the one you want to freeze instead of using a single cell. Next, click on Window -> Freeze Panes. The line where your column is frozen should thicken. When you scroll to the right, that column should always stay in view.

Here’s an example: Suppose I want to freeze column A. In the picture below, I have clicked on cell B1, then performed the Freeze Panes function. As you can see, the line between columns A and B is now more prominent (shown by the red circle). Column A is now frozen.

This is an example of freezing a single column. If I wanted to freeze columns A and B, I would do the same thing as above except I would highlight the first cell in column C. This would freeze both A and B.

Freezing Rows

This is pretty much the exact same as freezing columns, however instead of highlighting the column to the right, you highlight the row below.

Here’s an example: Suppose I want to freeze row 1. The first thing I’ll do is highlight row 2. Then, I’ll use the Freeze Panes function. The result would be shown below, with the prominent divider line between rows 1 and 2 shown in the red circle.

Similar to freezing columns, if you are highlighting a single cell, make sure it is the first cell in the row. To freeze multiple rows, adapt the example for freezing multiple columns.

Freezing Rows and Columns

This is usually the one that most people don’t know how to do, however it is just as simple as the first two. To freeze a row and a column, highlight the cell that is below the row you want to freeze and to the right of the column you want to freeze. This is pretty much a combination of the above two techniques.

Here’s an example: To freeze column A and row 1, you would highlight the cell shown below and then use the Freeze Panes function. The red circles highlight the thicker lines showing the result.

In this case, when you scroll to the right, column A will remain frozen, and when you scroll down, row 1 will be frozen. The procedure for freezing multiple rows and columns at once is in the same vein as freezing multiple rows or multiple columns.

In summary, freezing rows and columns is a pretty straightforward task to accomplish. It can be very useful in your spreadsheets, especially those with large amounts of data.