Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Converting Text Into a Table.

Converting Text Into a Table

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 2, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019

There are two major ways you can create tables in Word. One way is to create a blank table by any of the various methods provided by Word (such as drawing the table or using the Insert Table tool). The other method is to convert existing text into a table. To convert text into a table, follow these steps:

Make sure the text that is to be converted into the table contains only a single tab character between each column.
Select the text you want converted into a table.
Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Click the Table tool and then click Convert Text to Table. Word displays the Convert Text to Table dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Convert Text to Table dialog box.

Make sure all the table settings in the dialog box are correct.
Click OK.

The selected text is immediately converted into a table. In some instances, the width of columns in the resulting table may need to be adjusted. You will know if this is the case because the table will look very strange. Sometimes you can get files from programs such as a spreadsheet that use commas to separate columns. Word will also convert this comma-separated text to a table.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7725) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Converting Text Into a Table.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is four less than 5?

2019-11-02 06:11:29

R Grealish

A slightly quicker way to convert tabbed text to a tabular format is to follow steps 1 to 3 above, then click Insert table. The data will appear in a table.

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