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: Selecting a Column or Row in a Table.

Selecting a Column or Row in a Table

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 18, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

There are two ways to select a column within a table:

  • Position the insertion point in any cell within the column, display the Layout tab of the ribbon, then click Select | Select Column.
  • Move the mouse cursor just above the column you want to select. It will turn into a downward pointing arrow. Click on the left mouse button.

The two ways to select a row within a table are very similar:

  • Position the insertion point in any cell within the row, display the Layout tab of the ribbon, then click Select | Select Row.
  • Move the mouse cursor just to the left of the row you want to select, and then click on the left mouse button.

Note that the above references to "Layout tab of the ribbon" refers to the Layout tab that appears near the right side of the ribbon, to the right of the Table Design tab. This secondary Layout tab appears only after placing the insertion point within the 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 (10341) 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: Selecting a Column or Row in 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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Changing the Perspective of Your Chart

Microsoft Graph can be a handy way to add quick and dirty charts to your document. When working with 3-D charts, you can ...

Discover More

Displaying All the Files in a Folder using Explorer

Displaying all the files a folder contains is an easy task in Windows. One easy way to do it is by using the Windows ...

Discover More

Cleaning Up Text in a Macro

Need to remove extraneous characters from a text string? VBA makes it easy through the CleanString method, described in ...

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)

Splitting a Table

Table getting too long? Need to move part of a table to somewhere else in your document? You can easily split an existing ...

Discover More

Suppressing a Zero in a Calculated Sum

You can use fields to calculate a sum of values in a table column. Here are two ways you can modify what the fields ...

Discover More

Picking a Contiguous Range of Table Cells

Creating a table in Word is a relatively simple task. When you want to format or edit information in the table, often the ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is eight less than 8?

2022-06-18 11:22:41

NELSON DAVID CARVAJAL ALCARAZ

Hello ! Allen, there is also another way to select rows or columns that becomes tedious again. Through the keyboard shortcuts, modifying some default and assigning the respective command usually starts by (TableSelectRow) (TableSelectColumn) through the word options. Finally, as word allows continuous shortcuts for example tctrl+),1. And ctrl+),2. In this case, the commas (,) represent that one key can be played after the other without being pressed at the same time. This way I can have several table shortcuts like autofit among others. Customize Keyboard, accessed from File > Options > Customize Ribbon. Greetings Allen, I have been following you for two (2) years and I admire your work, thanks for sharing your knowledge and making us work more efficiently.


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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.