Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. 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: Transposing Table Contents.

Transposing Table Contents

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 22, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

If you are working with tables in a document, at some point you may find it helpful to transpose the contents of the table, so that rows become columns and columns become rows.

There is no way to do this in Word. There is, however, a way to transpose rows and columns in Excel. So, the typical method of accomplishing this task is to use both Word and Excel, using these general steps:

Create your table in Word.
Select the entire table and copy it to the Clipboard.
In Excel, use Paste Special to paste the table as Text.
Using Excel, transpose the rows and columns. (How you do this can be found on the ExcelTips site.)
Copy the transposed table to the Clipboard.
Paste the table back into Word.
Format the pasted table as desired.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9078) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Transposing Table Contents.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Copying Paragraph Formatting with the Mouse

When you get one paragraph formatted just the way you want, you might want to copy that formatting so it can be applied ...

Discover More

Scaling Graphics in a Macro

If you need to make sure that the graphics in a document are all scaled similarly, you'll love the macros presented in ...

Discover More

Filtering to a Standard Deviation

When you are working with large data sets, you may want to filter the information in those data sets according to various ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Adjusting Column Widths on Copied Tables

Word allows you to adjust column width by clicking on a column border and dragging that border as desired. If doing so ...

Discover More

Resizing Table Columns with the Mouse

Once a table is inserted in your document, you can use the mouse to adjust the width of columns. The effect the mouse ...

Discover More

Freezing a Table

Tired of Word changing the dimensions of table cells to accommodate what you place in those cells? You can instruct Word ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is seven more than 3?

2022-01-24 09:52:41

Andrew

Funny, I just had the need for this functionality just the other week, so I "hocked up" this macro to create a "transposed" table in a separate document. This is highly not robust, and could have some error checking, but that was taking me down a rabbit hole I didn't have time for.

Andy.

Sub TableTranspose()
' Rotates columns to rows and vice versa
Dim OriginalTable As Table
Dim TransposedTable As Table
Dim NewDoc As Document
Dim a As Long, b As Long

Set OriginalTable = Selection.Tables(1)
Set NewDoc = Documents.Add
Set TransposedTable = NewDoc.Tables.Add(NewDoc.Content, OriginalTable.Columns.Count, OriginalTable.Rows.Count)

For a = 1 To OriginalTable.Rows.Count
For b = 1 To OriginalTable.Columns.Count
TransposedTable.Cell(b, a).Range.Text = OriginalTable.Cell(a, b).Range.Text
Next b
Next a

TransposedTable.Select
End Sub

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.