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Word 2007: Are Table Styles safe to use now?
superboyac:
That's interesting, Andy. i would have never thought of that.
I'm thinking of doing all of the formatting in Excel, and then bringing it directly into Word with copy/paste normal. That seems to be working pretty well, even though all Shauna Kelly prefers pasting the chart in as a picture instead. The problem with that is the table is pretty long (spans 5-6 pages).
steeladept:
Thank you for making my point on the tabstops, AndyM. I would have to say, though, much of the reasons provided for Word being "easier" is because of lack of knowledge (in many cases anyway). Specifically you state:
among other reasons, easiest way to do certain kinds of underlining. also handy for forms, both printed and fill-in-the-blanks. Unless you are using VBA to do forms in Excel (powerful but much more to learn), Word is much handier for fill in the blank stuff. Without using tables it's almost impossible to keep variable length fields from changing your line-length and therefore your pagination.-AndyM (May 26, 2010, 10:03 PM)
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I can understand the underlining thing, though I feel there has got to be better ways to do this (I never had an issue with the way Word works here, however, so I have never needed to try). As for forms, I have, without exception, found Excel to be easier and much better at building forms (though a dedicated form builder is even nicer). The only catch is making sure you size your cells correctly, but that is easier to do than you might think, you just type everything out and merge cells as needed. You end up with an Excel file that has probably something like 40 columns on one 8.5x11 page, each only a few pixels wide, but it works well and you automatically avoid the variable length field problem you mention.
Word tables can be handy for entering data or for composing/designing when you know you will have some kind of row/column setup but not sure what the final layout will be. The kind of thing I have in mind would be tedious using tabs (which most definitely have their place - tables aren't always the best tool).
-AndyM (May 26, 2010, 10:03 PM)
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Word was never designed for final layout inline with composition anyway, so this really is something of a non-issue. If you create the data, then apply formatting, you are following the workflow Word was designed for. If you are creating the layout and then filling in the content, tables are much more efficient, and that is the way Excel is designed and should be used - hence my statement about using the correct tool for the job.
Generally it's easier to line things up with a table than with tabs. Except when it's not.
-AndyM (May 26, 2010, 10:03 PM)
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Well stated. ;)
As for the rest of what you are saying, I guess I can agree with it since it is rather subjective anyway. (What is easier to you is not necessarily easier for others). I never really got heavy into formatting anything other than the text itself, and that is equally easy in Excel as it is in Word. I can imagine a situation where you want certain text flowing around a picture so, I guess there are some limited uses for it - and even with everything I stated, I have used small, simple tables in Word (Very small mind you, 3x4 at the largest). It is just so many people use Word when they should use Excel and Excel when they should use Access. Excel is not a database, even if it has some of that functionality, just like Word is not a spreadsheet even though it can contain tables.
Now getting back to the OP issue -
I'm trying to make a glossary. Nothing fancy, but there is formatting involved. two columns, bold words, normal definitions, headers are formatted. But there are a lot of items.
-superboyac (May 26, 2010, 10:37 PM)
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If this is all you are looking for, just make the glossary in a single column as normal. Apply all your text formating next. Then highlight it all and make it two column. The only thing left is to make the headers which should be (oddly enough) in the page header. Word is made for this type of thing without resorting to tables or any special styling.
steeladept:
interesting, but what makes them so bad?
-Target (May 26, 2010, 08:23 PM)
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Tables are not bad at all, it is using tables in Word instead of using the right tool. You stated that tables are not spreadsheets, and this is true, but spreadsheets are tables. Nothing but tables. If most of your work is in a table, why would you use a word processor to make them?
You hit the nail on the head when you said "used sensibly". The problem is most people do not use them sensibly in Word. They know Word, they know they can insert a table, so they insert table upon table into document upon document when it would be much simpler, quicker, and easier for all involved if it was an Excel file.
The reason this is so poignant to me is, as a printer, I end up having to fix all these documents all the time, just to get them to print right. Because these are internal customers, I can't charge back my time, but I do get dinged for not producing. Simple changes such as using the right tool would allow me to be more productive, the requester to be more productive, and produce a more manageable, effective document.
JavaJones:
I just have to chime in with emphatic agreement on: Use the right tool for the job! Tables (and text boxes) in particular have been hugely problematic for me with Word. Huge tables created in Word when they should have been done in Excel. And text boxes used when they just shouldn't have been used at all (to accomplish things like aligning text properly, because the person doesn't know how to use tab stops!).
So yeah, it's a big problem when people get focused on just 1 tool and use it for all their problems.
- Oshyan
superboyac:
I just have to chime in with emphatic agreement on: Use the right tool for the job! Tables (and text boxes) in particular have been hugely problematic for me with Word. Huge tables created in Word when they should have been done in Excel. And text boxes used when they just shouldn't have been used at all (to accomplish things like aligning text properly, because the person doesn't know how to use tab stops!).
So yeah, it's a big problem when people get focused on just 1 tool and use it for all their problems.
- Oshyan
-JavaJones (May 27, 2010, 03:23 PM)
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So, what would you do if you already had a long glossary completed in another program (i.e. InfoQube) and you wanted to stick that information into a Word document? That's what I'm doing. Before I can stick it in, I have to massage IQ's output a little (headers, formatting, etc.) So what I'm doing now is doing that all in Excel, and copy/paste it into Word.
I'm not sure how effective these tabs stops would be for the same thing. Please advise, thanks.
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