Copying Tables to a New Document

Carol has a document that includes several tables. She would like to copy all of these tables to a new document and wonders about the best way to accomplish the task.

There are two ways you can accomplish the task. If you only have to do this a few times, for several tables, then a manual approach will be best:

1. Open both the source document (the one containing the tables) and a new document, making sure that both are visible on-screen.
2. In the source document, hover the mouse pointer over the table you want to copy. A small box should appear at the upper-left corner of the table. (This box contains a four-headed arrow and is called a move handle.)
3. Click the move handle. The entire table is selected.
4. Press Ctrl+C. The table is now copied to the Clipboard.
5. In the target document, position the insertion point where you want the table pasted.
6. Press Ctrl+V. Word pastes the table in the document.
7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 for each table you want to copy.

If you need to copy tables quite often, then a macro is the best way to approach the task. The following short macro uses the active document as the source document. It creates a new document and copies every table from the source document to the new document.

Sub CopyTablesNewDoc()
    Dim SrcDoc As Document
    Dim NewDoc As Document
    Dim Tbl As Table

    Set SrcDoc = ActiveDocument
    Set NewDoc = Documents.Add
    For Each Tbl In SrcDoc.Tables
        Tbl.Range.Copy
        NewDoc.Range(NewDoc.Content.End - 1).Paste
        NewDoc.Range.InsertParagraphAfter
    Next Tbl
End Sub

In the new document created by the macro, each table is separated by a blank paragraph. When completed, the new document is active and you can continue to edit it or save it, 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 (10281) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.