Writer Guide

Chapter 9
Working with Tables

CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2011 by its contributors as listed below. You may distribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), version 3.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
Ron Faile Jr.
Barbara Duprey
Hal Parker

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:
documentation@libreoffice.org

Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on Chapter 9 of the Writer Guide for OpenOffice.org. The contributors to thatchapter are:Peter Hillier-Brook
Iain Roberts
Barbara M. Tobias
Michele Zarri

John Kane
Gary Schnabl
Jean Hollis Weber
Magnus Adielsson

Stefan A. Keel
Janet Swisher
Bob Wickham

Publication date and software version
Published 14 February 2011. Based on LibreOffice 3.3.

Note for Mac users
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows and Linux.
The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in this chapter. For a moredetailed list, see the application Help.
Windows/LinuxMac equivalent

EffectTools → Options menu
selection

LibreOffice → Preferences

Access setup options

Right-click

Control+click

Open context menu

Ctrl (Control)z (Command)

Used with other keys

F5

Shift+z+F5

Open the Navigator

F11

z+T

Open Styles & Formatting window

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at www.libreoffice.org

Contents
Copyright......................................................................................................................................... 2
Note for Mac users........................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 4
Creating a table................................................................................................................................ 4
Inserting a new table................................................................................................................... 4
Creating nested tables................................................................................................................. 6
Using AutoCorrect to create a table.............................................................................................6
Create a table from formatted text..........................................................................................6
Example.................................................................................................................................. 7
Formatting the table layout............................................................................................................... 7
Default parameters...................................................................................................................... 8
Resizing and positioning the table...............................................................................................8
Resizing rows and columns......................................................................................................... 9Inserting rows and columns.......................................................................................................10
Merging and splitting cells..........................................................................................................11
Specifying table borders............................................................................................................ 11
Selecting background colors and graphics................................................................................12
Displaying or hiding table boundaries........................................................................................14
Formatting the table text................................................................................................................14
Specifying text flow.................................................................................................................... 15
Vertical alignment...................................................................................................................... 16
Number formats......................................................................................................................... 16
Rotating text in a table cell........................................................................................................16
Data entry and manipulation in tables............................................................................................17
Moving between cells................................................................................................................ 17
Sorting data in a table................................................................................................................17
Using spreadsheet functions in a table......................................................................................18
Additional table operations.............................................................................................................19
Adding a caption........................................................................................................................ 19
Cross-referencing a table.......................................................................................................... 21
Automatic formatting of tables...................................................................................................21
Creating a heading row in an existing table...............................................................................22
Merging and splitting tables.......................................................................................................22
Deleting a table......................................................................................................................... 23
Copying a table......................................................................................................................... 23
Moving a table........................................................................................................................... 24
Inserting a paragraph before or after a table.............................................................................24
Using tables as a page layout tool.............................................................................................24
The Table menu and toolbar.......................................................................................................... 24

Working with Tables

3

Introduction
Tables are a useful way to organize and present large amounts of information, for example:• Technical, financial, or statistical reports.
• Product catalogs showing descriptions, prices, characteristics, and photographs ofproducts.
Bills or invoices.

•• Lists of names with address, age, profession, and other information.
Tables can often be used as an alternative to spreadsheets to organize materials. A well-designed
table can help readers understand better what you are saying. While you would normally use
tables for text or numbers, you could put other objects, such as pictures, in cells.
Tables can also be used as a page-layout tool to position text in areas of a document instead ofusing several Tab characters. For example, the descriptions under Figure 13 were created in atable with invisible borders. Another, perhaps better example would be in headers and footers to
support independent positioning of different elements, such as page number, document title etc.
This use of tables is described in Chapter 4, Formatting Pages.

Creating a table
Before you insert a table into a document, it helps to have an idea of the visual result you want toobtain as well as an estimate of the number of rows and columns required. Every parameter canbe changed at a later stage; however, thinking ahead can save a large amount of time as changes
to fully formatted tables often require a significant effort.

Inserting a new table
To insert a new table, position the cursor where you want the table to appear, then use any of thefollowing methods to open the Insert Table dialog box:

• From the main menu, choose Insert → Table.
• From the main menu, choose Table → Insert → Table.
• Press Control+F12.
• From the Standard toolbar, click the Table icon
Here you can specify the properties for the new table.
Under Name, you can enter a different name than the LibreOffice-generated default for the table.
This might come in handy when using the Navigator to quickly jump to a table.
Under Size, specify the initial number of columns and rows for the new table. You can change thesize of the table later, if necessary.

4

Working with Tables

Figure 1: Inserting a new table using the Insert Table dialog box
Under Options, set up the initial table characteristics. Selecting the options in this section of the
dialog produces the following results:• Heading — Defines the first row(s) in the table as headings. The default Table Heading•

paragraph style is applied to the heading rows and thus makes the text centered, bold, anditalic. You can edit the LibreOffice-predefined Table Heading paragraph style in the Styles
and Formatting window to change these default settings. When splitting a table into twotables, the Heading row(s) can be copied in the second table.
Repeat heading — Repeats the heading row(s) of the table at the top of subsequentpages if the table spans more than one page.
The first ... rows —Specifies the number of rows to be repeated. Default is 1.

• Don’t split table — Prevents the table from spanning more than one page. This can be•

useful if the table starts near the end of a page, and would look better if it were completely
located on the following page. If the table becomes longer than would fit on one page, youwill need to either deselect this option or manually split the table.
Border — Surrounds each cell of the table with a border. This border can be modified ordeleted later.

The AutoFormat button opens a dialog box from which you can select one of the many predefinedtable layouts. See “Automatic formatting of tables” on page 21 for more information.
After making your choices, click OK. Writer creates a table as wide as the text area (from the left
page margin to the right page margin), with all columns the same width and all rows the sameheight. You can then adjust the columns and rows later to suit your needs.

Tip

Creating a table

To directly insert a table with the default properties, click on the little arrow next to theTable icon on the Standard toolbar. A graphic appears where you can choose thetable’s size (up to fifteen rows and up to ten columns). To create the table, click on
the cell that you want to be on the last row of the last column. Holding down themouse button over the Table icon will also display the graphic.

5Creating nested tables
You can create tables within tables, nested to a depth only limited by imagination and practicality.
Figure 2 demonstrates a simple, two-level example.
To achieve this, simply click in a cell of an existing table and use any of the methods mentioned in“Inserting a new table” above.

Figure 2: Nested table example. The shaded table is nested in acell of the larger table.

Using AutoCorrect to create a table
You can also create a table by typing a series of hyphens (-) or tabs separated by plus signs. Use
the plus signs to indicate column dividers, while hyphens and tabs are used to indicate the width ofa column.
For example, this character sequence:+-----------------+---------------+------+
creates a table like this:

Note

CautionThis function can be disabled or enabled in Tools → AutoCorrect. On the Options tab,deselect or select Create table.
When using tabs instead of a table to line up your data, always make sure that you
know how wide they are set and remember that default tabs may be different when
the document is displayed on a different computer or even when copying the samedata in a new document.

Create a table from formatted text
It is possible to create a table starting from plain text by means of the Table → Convert → Text toTable menu. In order for this command to work effectively, the starting text needs to have clear
demarcation between what will become the columns of the table. Paragraph marks indicate theend of a row.
To convert text to a table, start by selecting the text you want to convert and choose Table →Convert → Text to Table to open the dialog shown in Figure 3.
In the top part of the dialog, select the symbol that separates the columns. This would normally bea tab, but it could be a semicolon or comma if you are importing a CSV file. The other options inthis dialog are the same as those in the dialog used to insert a table shown in Figure 1.

6

Working with Tables

Figure 3: Dialog box to configure the text to table conversion

ExampleIn this example we will convert the following text into a table.
Row 1 Column 1; Row 1 Column 2; Row 1 Column 3
Row 2 Column 1; Row 2 Column 2; Row 2 Column 3
In this case, the separator between elements is a semicolon. By selecting the text and applying theconversion, we obtain the following result.
Row 1 Column 1

Row 1 Column 2

Row 1 Column 3

Row 2 Column 1

Row 2 Column 2

Row 2 Column 3

Note that, unlike when creating a table with other mechanisms, the conversion from text to table
preserves the paragraph style and character style applied to the original text.
You can also use the Convert menu to perform the opposite operation; that is, to transform a table
into plain text. This may be useful when you want to export the table contents into a different
program.
To transform a table into text, place the cursor anywhere in the table, choose Table → Convert →Table to Text in the main menu, pick the preferred row separator, and click OK to finish.

Formatting the table layout
Formatting a table is, generally speaking, a two-step process: formatting of the table layout (thesubject of this section) and formatting of the table text (the subject of the next section).
Formatting the layout normally involves one or more of the following operations: adjusting the sizeof the table and its position on the page, adjusting sizes of rows and columns, adding or removing
rows or columns, merging and splitting individual cells, changing borders and background.

Formatting the table layout

7

Default parameters
If you create a table using the Insert Table dialog box or the Table icon on the Standard toolbar
and activate the Heading option, the following defaults are set:

• The cells in the heading row (or rows) use the Table Heading paragraph style. In the default•

template, the text is centered and set with a bold and italic font.
The remaining cells use the Table Contents paragraph style, which, in the default template,is identical to the Default paragraph style.
The default table occupies all the space from margin to margin (text area).

•• The default table has thin black borders around each cell (grid).

Resizing and positioning the table
Using the default settings, any newly created table will occupy the entire width of the text area.
This is sometimes what you want, or you may prefer a smaller table. To quickly resize a table, firstmove the mouse to either the left or right edge. When the cursor changes shape into a doublearrow, drag the border to the new position. This operation only changes the size of the first or lastcolumn; it does not change the alignment of the table on the page.
If you need more precise control over the size and position of the table on the page, open the Table
Format dialog box by choosing Table → Table Properties or by right-clicking anywhere in the table
and choosing Table from the pop-up menu. Select the first page of the dialog box (Table).

Figure 4: The Table page of the Table Format dialog box
On this page you can set the alignment of the table, choosing among the following options:

•
•
•
•
•
•

8

Automatic: the default setting for a table.
Left: aligns the table with the left margin.
Right: aligns the table with the right margin.
From Left: lets you specify under Spacing exactly how far from the left margin the table isplaced.
Center: aligns the table in the middle between the left and right margins. If the table widthis greater than the margin, the table will extend outside of the margins.
Manual: lets you specify the distances from both left and right margins under Spacing.

Working with Tables

Selecting an alignment option other than Automatic activates the Width field in the Properties
section, where you can enter the desired size of the table. Select Relative to see the width aspercentage of the text area.
In the Spacing section, use the Above and Below boxes to modify the separation between the text
and the table. When the size of the table is less than the size of the text area, LibreOffice will insert
some values in the Left and Right boxes. You can change both Left and Right box values if you
select Manual alignment and you can change the Left box value when you select the From Leftalignment; otherwise these values are not available. Note that the sum of the table width, and thevalues in the Left and Right boxes, needs to equal the width of the text area.

Resizing rows and columns
You can adjust the height of rows and the width of columns in a table in several ways.

• Move the mouse next to the edge of the cell and when a double-headed arrow appears,••

click and hold the left mouse button, drag the border to the desired position, and release
the mouse button.
On the horizontal ruler, column dividers are marked by a pair of thin gray lines; the verticalruler indicates row dividers in the same way. You can resize a row or column by holding themouse button down on the appropriate divider and dragging it to the desired location.
Use the keyboard as described below.

Selecting Table → Autofit from the main menu also offers some resizing options:• The Optimal Column Width or Optimal Row Height options make the selected columns•

or rows as narrow as possible while still fitting their contents.
Selected columns and rows can be distributed evenly to quickly bring them back to all
being the same width or height.

For greater control over the width of each column, use the Columns page of the Table Format
dialog box.

Figure 5: Table Format dialog box: Columns page
Right-click on the table and choose Table from the pop-up menu or choose Table → Table
Properties from the main menu. On the Table Format dialog box, select the Columns tab.

• Adapt table width: If a table already stretches to the page margins, it cannot stretch any
wider and the Adapt table width option is not available. If the table is narrower, increasing
the width of a column will increase the width of the whole table.
If the table width already extends pasts the margins with the Adapt table width option
checked, attempting to change a column width will automatically decrease that column’s

Formatting the table layout

9

•
•
•

size so that the table will now shrink to the page margins while keeping any other column
sizes intact.
Adjust columns proportionally results in all columns changing their widths by the same
percentage when one is changed. For example, if you reduce by half the size of a column,
all the other columns sizes will be halved.
Remaining space shows how much further the table can expand before hitting the limit of
the margins. This value cannot be edited and will not be negative in the event that the table
width is already larger than the space between the left and right margins.
Under Column width, each individual column can be adjusted. If you have more than six
columns, use the arrows at the right and left to view them all.

Rather than start from the Table Format dialog box, it is often more efficient to make roughadjustments to a new table using the mouse, and then fine tune the layout using the Columns
page in conjunction with the Table page of the Table Format dialog box.
It is also possible to resize a table using only the keyboard. This is on occasion easier than using
the mouse.
1) Place the cursor on the cell whose size you want to change.
2) Press and hold the Alt key while using the arrow keys to change the size.
To adjust the resizing parameters and behavior for keyboard handling, choose Tools → Options →LibreOffice Writer → Table.
Use the Row and Column values in the Move cells section to determine the amount of change
produced by a single keystroke while resizing. In the Behavior of rows/columns section you canchoose one of the following three strategies when resizing:• Fixed: select this if you want the resizing to only affect the adjacent cell, and not the entire
table. The width of the table does not change when resizing its cells.
• Fixed, proportional: when resizing a cell with this option selected, all the other cells are also
resized proportionally, Also in this case the width of the table remains constant.
• Variable: this is the default value. Resizing a cell affects the table size. For example, when
you widen a cell, the width of the table increases.

Inserting rows and columns
To insert any number of rows or columns:
1) Place the cursor in the row or column where you want to add new rows or columns andright-click.
2) On the pop-up menu, choose Row → Insert or Column → Insert. This will display a dialog
box where you can select the number of rows or columns to add, and whether they appear
before or after the selected one.
3) Set Amount to the number of rows or columns to insert, and Position to Before or After.
4) Click OK to close the dialog box.
The Table → Insert → Row and Table → Insert → Column choices from the main menu provide thesame options.

Note

Clicking on the Insert Row icon on the Table toolbar inserts one row below theselected one. Clicking on the Insert Column icon on the Table toolbar inserts acolumn after (to the right of) the selected one.
Regardless of how they are inserted, new rows or columns have the same formatting
as the row or column where the cursor was when the insert command was issued.

10

Working with Tables

You can also quickly insert a row or a column using only the keyboard:
1) Place the cursor in the row or column next to the row or column you want to insert.
2) Press Alt+Insert to activate keyboard handling.
3) Use the arrow keys as desired to add a row or column:
Left to insert a new column to the left of the cell where the cursor is located.
Right to insert a new column to the right of the cell where the cursor is.
Down to insert a new row below the cell where the cursor is.
Up to insert a new row above the cell where the cursor is.
The above keyboard technique can also be used to delete rows or columns by substituting the
Alt+Insert keystroke combination in Step 2 with Alt+Delete.

Merging and splitting cells
To merge a group of cells into one cell:
1) Select the cells to merge.
2) Right-click and choose Cell → Merge on the pop-up menu, or choose Table → Merge Cells
from the main menu.
To split a cell into multiple cells:1) Position the cursor inside the cell.
2) Right-click and choose Cell → Split on the pop-up menu, or choose Table → Split Cells
from the main menu.
3) Select how to split the cell. A cell can be split either horizontally (create more rows) orvertically (create more columns), and you can specify the total number of cells to create.
It is generally a good rule to merge and split cells after completing other layout formatting. This isbecause some operations such as deleting a column or a row may produce a result difficult topredict when applied to a table with merged or split cells.

Specifying table borders
On the Table Format dialog box, select the Borders tab.
Here you can set borders for a whole table or groups of cells within a table. In addition, a shadow
can be set for the whole table.
Borders have three components: where they go, what they look like, and how much space is left
around them.

•Line arrangement specifies where the borders go. If a group of cells is selected, the border
will be applied only to those cells. You can specify individually the style of the border for theoutside edges of the selected cells as well as for the the cell divisions. Writer provides fivedefault arrangements but you can just as easily click on the line you want to customize in
the User-defined area to get exactly what you want. When multiple cells are selected, theUser-defined area allows you to select the edges of the selection as well as the cell
dividers. By clicking at the intersection of the lines, you can modify multiple borders
simultaneously. For example, in Figure 6 the right edge and horizontal separators are
modified with a single operation.

Note

When the selected cells have different styles of border the User-defined area shows
the border as a gray line. You can click on the gray line to choose a new border style(first click), leave the border as it is (second click) or delete the border (third click).

Formatting the table layout

11

Figure 6: Table Format dialog box: Borders page

• Line specifies what the border looks like: the style and color. There are a number of•••different styles and colors to choose from. The Line Style and Color will apply to thoseborders highlighted by a pair of black arrows in the User-defined map on the left hand sideof the dialog box.
Spacing to contents specifies how much space to leave between the border and the cell
contents. Spaces can be specified to the left, right, above, and below. Check Synchronize
to have the same spacing for all four sides. This spacing is like a padding and it is notfactored in when calculating the text measurements.
Shadow style properties always apply to the whole table. A shadow has three components:
where it is, how far from the table it is cast, and what color it is.
If Merge adjacent line styles is checked, two cells sharing a common border will havetheir borders merged, rather than being side by side.

Tip

To reset everything if you are having problems with borders, right-click in the table
and choose Table or choose Table → Table Properties from the main menu. On the
Borders tab, select the Set No Borders icon under Line arrangement: Default (thebox on the left).

Selecting background colors and graphics
A table background can greatly improve the readability of the data, visually highlight importantparts of the table (such as the heading or a specific cell), or just make the table more appealing.
You can choose between two types of background when formatting the table: solid color orgraphic. The background can be applied to the whole table, to a single cell, or to a row. The
background selected for a cell will be in front of the row background which in turn will hide the tablebackground.

12

Working with Tables

The row background option is quite handy when you want to create alternate color rows or assign
a different background to the heading of the table. The tables in this guide adopt this technique.
To set the background for a cell, row, or table:
1) Place the cursor anywhere inside the cell, row or table you want to work with. If you want toapply a background to a group of cells, select the group.
2) Right-click and choose Table from the pop-up menu, or choose Table → Table Properties
from the main menu.
3) In the Table Format dialog box, select the Background tab.

Figure 7: Table Format dialog: inserting a graphic background4) In the For section, chose whether to apply the settings to cell, row, or table.
•
If you choose Cell, changes apply only to the selected cells, or the cell where thecursor currently resides. Even when selecting a group of cells, the backgroundsettings are applied to each cell individually.
•
If you choose Row, changes affect the entire row where the cursor resides.

•

If you choose Table, changes will set the background for the entire table, regardlessof the cursor position or selected cells.
5) In the As section, choose whether the background is a color or a graphic.
To apply a color, select the color and click OK. Remember that you can add custom colors
by choosing Tools → Options → LibreOffice → Colors.
To apply a graphic:a) First select the graphic from your computer’s file system with the Browse button.
(Writer supports a large number of graphics formats.)b) You can use the Link option to link the graphic file. If it is linked, changes to thegraphic (for example, if you edit it in a different software package) are reflected in yourdocument. However, you also need to keep the linked graphic file with the document
file. If, for example, you email the document without the graphic file, the graphic will nolonger be visible.
c) Under Type, select the type of placement for the graphic.

Formatting the table layout

13

•
•
•
d)
e)

If you choose Position, you can select in the position map where the graphic
will be displayed in the selected area.
If you choose Area, the graphic is stretched to fill the whole area.
If Tile, the graphic is tiled (repeated horizontally and vertically) to fill the area.

If the Preview option is checked, the graphic displays in the pane on the right.
To apply the graphic, click OK.

Figure 8 shows an example of a table set with a background image, and the first row backgroundcolored. As you can see, the row background covers the table background.

Figure 8: Example of table with different row and table backgrounds

Displaying or hiding table boundaries
A table boundary is a set of pale (usually gray) lines around the cells when viewed on-screen in
LibreOffice. These boundaries are not printed; their only function is to help you see where the table
cells are.
To display the table the same way on the screen as on the printed page, with no boundary lines,
right-click on the table and choose Table Boundaries from the pop-up menu. Repeat this to havethe boundaries appear again.

Note

Turning boundaries off does not hide the borders that the table may have.

Tip

You can also turn table boundaries on and off through Tools → Options →LibreOffice → Appearance. On that page, you can display or hide boundaries
around text, pages headers and footers, figures, and other parts of a document.

Formatting the table text
Once the table layout is satisfactory, you can move on to formatting the text in the individual cells.
You can apply manual formatting as with any other paragraph in the text, but it is highly
recommended, for the sake of consistency and ease of maintenance, that you define your own
paragraph and character styles.
Besides the paragraph and character styles, there are other aspects to consider when placing text
in a table cell, such as text flow, alignment and orientation.
You can format each cell independently of other cells, or you can simultaneously format a group ofcells by selecting them before applying the desired formatting.

14

Working with Tables

Specifying text flow
On the Text Flow page of the Table Format dialog box (Figure 9), you can:• Insert a page or column break either before or after the table. Use the Text Flow: Break

•
•
•
•
•

option, combined with the Page or Column and the Before or After buttons.
If you insert a page break before the table (that is, start the table on a new page), you canalso change the page style that will go with it by checking the With Page Style box andselecting a new page style. As with any page break, you can also reset the page numbers
using the Page number box.
Keep a table on one page by deselecting the Allow table to split across pages andcolumns option. If this item is deselected, the next item is not active.
Keep each row on one page by deselecting the Allow row to break across pages andcolumns option.
Use the Keep with next paragraph option to keep the table and an immediately following
paragraph together if you insert a page break.
Use the Repeat heading option, and its associated numbers box, to select the number oftable heading rows that will be repeated on each page. A complicated table may need twoor three heading rows to be easily read and understood.
Use the Text direction list to select the direction for the text in the cells. The most common
setting is Left to right for Western languages.

Note

The phrase Use superordinate object settings means “use the formatting settingsfrom the paragraph before the table”.

Figure 9: Table Format dialog box: Text Flow page

• Select the vertical alignment of the text in the table or the selected cells; the choices are toalign with the top of the cell, the center of the cell, or the bottom of the cell. This alignmentis in addition to the Left-Right alignment options available on the Table page of the Table
Format dialog box.

Formatting the table text

15

Note

A table heading row can not span two pages, but any other row can. A one-row table(often used for page layout purposes), if set up with the default of including aheading, will not break across pages. The cure is to make sure the table is definedwithout a heading row.

Vertical alignment
By default, text entered into a table is aligned to the top-left of the cell. You can change the default
for the entire table, as described above, or for individually selected cells.
To vertically align the text in specific cells:• Place the cursor in the cell you wish to change, or click and drag to select multiple cells.
• Right-click in the selected area and choose Cell → Center, Top, or Bottom in the pop-up
menu to vertically align the text as desired.

Number formats
The number format can be set for a whole table or group of cells. For example, cells can be set todisplay in a particular currency, to four decimal places, or in a particular date format.
Number recognition specifies that numbers in a text table are recognized and formatted as
numbers. If number recognition is selected, numbers are automatically bottom-right aligned.
Number recognition option can be enabled under Tools → Options → LibreOffice Writer → Table.
Select the cells to format, then right-click and choose Number Format from the pop-up menu. The
Number Format dialog box opens for you to set options for various categories of numerical data.

• In the Category list, select the category you want, such as currency, date, or text.
• In the Format list, choose a format for the category you just selected.
• For some categories, such as date, you may wish to change the language using theLanguage list while for other numerical categories the Options section of the dialog box
allows you to customize the appearance.

Tip

You will notice that LibreOffice displays the formatting code for the category andformat selected in Format Code section at the bottom of the dialog box. For example,
if you select a date format such as 31 Dec 1999 the corresponding code is D MMM
YYYY. Advanced users can easily customize this formatting code as well as create
new user-defined codes.

Rotating text in a table cell
You can rotate text in a table cell by 90 or 270 degrees. Text rotation is useful when you have longheadings for narrow columns.

• Select the text to be rotated and then choose Format → Character.
• On the Position page, in the Rotation / scaling section, choose the rotation angle and click
OK.
Figure 10 shows a sample table with rotated headings.

16

Working with Tables

Figure 10: A table with rotated headings

Note

Text rotation within table cells can also be achieved with the use of paragraph styles,
discussed in greater detail in Chapter 7, Working with Styles.

Data entry and manipulation in tables
Moving between cells
Within a table, you can use the mouse, the cursor keys, or the Tab key to move between cells.
The cursor keys move to the next cell only if there is no text in the way. For example, pressing theright cursor key will move the cursor to the right within the text in the current cell, then to the nextcell.
The Tab key moves directly to the next cell and, if the cursor is in the last cell in the table, creates a
new row. Pressing Shift+Tab moves the cursor back a cell.

Tip

To enter a Tab character as part of the text of the cell, press the Control and Tab keys
at the same time.

Sorting data in a table
Just as in a spreadsheet, Writer allows data in a table to be sorted. Up to three levels of sorting
can be specified (for example, sort first by age numerically, then alphabetically by name withineach age).
To sort data in a table:
1) Select the table (or part of the table) to be sorted.
2) From the main menu, choose Table → Sort.
3) In the Sort dialog box:–
Decide whether you want to sort in the direction of rows or columns. The default
sorting direction is by rows, which results in sorting the data in a column.
–
Select up to three keys to sort on, in the correct order.

––

For each key, select which column or row to sort on, whether the sort is Numeric or
Alphanumeric and whether it is Ascending or Descending.
Click OK to perform the sort.

Data entry and manipulation in tables

17

Note

You have to select all cells that might be affected by the sorting. For example, if you
select only the cells of one column, the sort affects that column only, while the others
remain unchanged. In such a case, you risk mixing the data of the rows.

Using spreadsheet functions in a table
In a table in a Writer document, you can use some of the mathematical functions that are normally
implemented by LibreOffice Calc. For many simple functions, Writer tables can be used as basic
spreadsheets.
Just as in a spreadsheet, each table cell is identified by a letter (for the column) and a number (forthe row). For example, cell C4 is the cell in the third column from the left and fourth row from thetop. When the cursor is in a cell, this cell reference is displayed on the status bar.

Tip

Basic spreadsheet functions in tables are much the same as in LibreOffice Calc. The
main difference is that cell references are formatted differently. Cell A2 (first column,
second row) is referred to in Calc as A2 (or $A$2 for an absolute reference). In Writertables, it is referred to as <A2>.

For example, suppose you had two numbers in cells <B1> and <C2> and wanted to display thesum of the two in cell <A1>, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Using spreadsheet functions in a table
Do the following:
1) Click in cell <A1> and press the = key, or choose Table → Formula from the main menu.
The Formula bar appears automatically, near the top of the screen. In the leftmost side of
the bar, you can see the coordinates of the selected cell.
2) Click in cell <B1>. The identifiers of this cell are automatically displayed in the Formula bar
and inserted into cell <A1>.
3) Press the + key.
4) Click on cell <C2>. You can see the final formula = <B1>+<C2> displayed both in theselected cell and in the Object bar.
5) Press the Enter key, or click the green tick (checkmark) on the Formula Bar, to replace theformula in the cell with the result of the calculation.

Tip

18

To display an existing formula in a cell and make it available for editing, choose
Table → Formula from the main menu.

Working with Tables

To display the list of the mathematical functions that you can use in a table:

Tip1) Display the Formula toolbar by pressing F2 or by selecting a blank cell andpressing the = key.
2) Click the Formula f(x) icon.

In our example, this gives the result 9 in the top left cell. For summing contiguous cells, you cansimply select the cells in the row, column, or the rectangle of rows and columns. Thus, for example,
to add a column of numbers, do this:1) Type an equals sign = in an empty cell.
2) Select the cells to be added together—in this case the cells from A2 to A5. The formula
should be something like =<A2:A5>.
3) Press the Enter key or click the green tick (checkmark) on the Formula Bar.
4) The answer appears in the cell you have selected.
When using a function, you can enter the cells manually or by selecting them. Thus, to add up thefour numbers that we added above (A2, A3, A4, A5), do this:1) Type an equals sign = in an empty cell.
2) Type sum or select it from the function list f(x).
3) Select the contiguous cells to be added together. The formula should be something like=sum<A2:A5>.
4) Press the Enter key or click the green tick (checkmark) on the Formula Bar.
5) The answer appears in the cell you have selected.

Caution

Unlike Calc, when inserting or deleting rows or columns of the table, formulas are not
updated automatically. If you plan to use complex formulas you should consider
embedding a Calc spreadsheet in your Writer document.

Additional table operations
Adding a caption
You can easily add a caption to any table. Writer will keep track of all your captioned tables,
automatically number them, and update any links to them.
To add a caption to a table:
1) Place the cursor in the table.
2) Right-click and choose Caption from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, the Insert → Caption
menu option becomes available whenever your cursor is inside a table cell.
3) Enter the text for your caption, your category selection, the numbering style, separator, andposition (above or below the table).
4) Click OK.

NoteOnce the category, numbering style, and separator are established in the Caption
dialog box, you can edit them in the document if you choose. However, doing so
may damage the automatic numbering and reference links. If you need to establish
the numbering and reference link for the caption, you can choose to leave yourcaption blank in the Caption dialog box and add it later.

Additional table operations

19

Writer supplies five different category labels for captions: <None>, Drawing, Table, Illustration, andText.
You can also create your own category labels, formatting, and separators. For example, you mightwant your tables to be labeled as Fantasia, formatted with roman numerals, and using a period(‘.’) as a separator, as follows:
Fantasia I. Interesting data
Fantasia II. More interesting data
Fantasia III. Yet more interesting data
To accomplish this:1) Open the Caption dialog box following the instructions above.
2) In the Category field, select the text and type the word Fantasia.
3) In the Numbering drop-down, select the Roman (I II III) option.
4) In the Separator field, select the text and type a period (.) followed by a space.

Note

LibreOffice will use exactly what you type into the Category and Separator fields, so
be sure to include any additional spaces or punctuation you want to see in yourcaption.

Additional options for numbering captions by chapter are available under the Options button in the
Captions dialog box. Some of these settings which refer to the outline level will only have an effectif you are using outline level paragraph styles on the chapter headings within your document. See
Chapter 7. Working With Styles, for information.
By adding chapter numbers to your captions, LibreOffice will restart the caption numbering for eachchapter it encounters. For example, if the last figure caption you create in chapter 1 is Figure 1.15,
and the next figure caption you create is in chapter 2, the numbering will start over at Figure 2.1.
Options available to chapter numbering for captions include the following:• Use Level to specify the outline levels that triggers a restart of the numbering as well as

•
•
•
•

how many levels of outline numbering are shown before the table number. An example may
be useful. Suppose your document uses Heading 1 style for chapters and Heading 2 stylefor sub-headings, and that this is how you set up your outline numbering. If you want all thetables in a chapter (that is, between two Heading 1 paragraphs) to be numberedsequentially independently of the sub heading they are under, select 1 as Level. If instead
you want to restart the numbering at each sub-heading select level 2.
Use the Separator field to establish the separator between the chapter number and figure
number.
Use Character style to set a character style for the caption. This is useful if the separatorof your choice is not a symbol included in the default font type of your document or if you
want the caption to have a special color, size and so on.
The Apply border and shadow option does not apply to table captions. LibreOfficenormally wraps the objects you can add a caption to in a frame, but not for tables.
Use Caption order to specify whether you want the category or numbering to appear firstin the caption.

All of the features described above can also be set up to automatically apply to any new tables you
create in your document.
To automatically caption all your tables:
1) Place the cursor in a table.
2) Right-click and choose Caption → AutoCaption from the pop-up menu.
20Working with Tables

3) Select LibreOffice Writer Table and select the settings you want and click OK. This dialog
box is covered in more detail in Chapter 2, Setting up Writer.
When AutoCaption is enabled for tables, any new tables will be captioned according to yourselections in the AutoCaption dialog box; however, you will need to add the specific text for each
caption onto the table manually.

Cross-referencing a table
You can insert a cross-reference to a captioned table. Clicking on the cross-reference takes thereader directly to the table.
1) Position the cursor where you want the cross reference.
2) Choose Insert → Cross-reference from the main menu.
3) Set the Type to Table (or whatever you chose as the category). A list of captioned tables will
be shown in the Selection panel; select the one you want to reference.
4) In the Format pane, choose how the cross reference will appear.
•
Page creates a reference of the page number that the caption appears on.

•

Chapter places a reference to the chapter number in which the caption appears. This
will only produce an empty space unless you have set up your chapter headings withoutline level paragraph styles.
•
Reference inserts the entire caption's category, number and caption text as areference.
•
Above/Below inserts “above” or “below” depending on whether the table appears
above or below the cross-reference.
•
As Page Style creates a reference of the page number that the caption appears on
using the page style format.
•
Category and Number creates a cross-reference with only the caption's category
and number; for example, Table 1 for the first table.
•
Caption Text creates the reference using the caption text, leaving off the category
and number.
•
Numbering inserts only the number of the caption.
5) Click Insert to add the cross-reference and click Close to exit the dialog box.

Automatic formatting of tables
Using AutoFormat, you can apply an elaborate format to your table with just a few clicks.
AutoFormat is somewhat similar to paragraph styles and will enable you to obtain consistentlooking tables across your document. You can also create your own table formats and save themas another AutoFormat option.
To apply an AutoFormat, place the cursor anywhere in the table and choose Table → AutoFormat.
This opens the dialog box shown in Figure 12.
Select from the list on the left the Format most suitable for your table and click OK to apply it.
Clicking the More button opens another section of the dialog box where you can rename theselected table format scheme as well as decide which parts of the predefined formatting you want
to apply to your table. You can selectively apply the number format, the font, the alignment, theborder, or the pattern.

Additional table operations

21

Figure 12: The table AutoFormat dialog
To create your own AutoFormat, proceed as follows:
1) Create a table and manually format it as you wish, including borders, spacing of text fromthe top and bottom borders, fonts to be used in the table heading and data cells, andbackground colors.
2) Position the cursor anywhere in the table and then click Table → AutoFormat.
3) On the AutoFormat dialog box, click Add and give the table format a name in the Add
AutoFormat dialog box and click OK.
4) The newly named AutoFormat now appears as an available format. Click OK to close the
AutoFormat dialog box.

Tip

CautionThis technique does not include table and column widths in the table format. To insert
a table with predefined full formatting, save it as AutoText. See “Using AutoText” in
Chapter 3, Working with Text, for instructions.

Autoformats are not easily removed. You can change to a different autoformat, but ittakes Undo to get back to the original table.

Creating a heading row in an existing table
To create a heading row in an existing table that does not have one, you need to apply an
AutoFormat that does have a heading defined. (Here is where having some personalized tableformats could come in very handy.) Place the cursor anywhere in the table and then click Table →AutoFormat. Choose a format. Click OK. Use the More button and deselect the formatting options
you do not want to apply to your table.

Merging and splitting tables
One table can be split into two tables, and two tables can be merged into a single table. Tables are
split only horizontally (the rows above the split point are put into one table, and the rows below intoanother).

22

Working with Tables

To split a table:
1) Place the cursor in a cell which will be in the top row of the second table after the split (thetable splits immediately above the cursor).
2) Right-click and choose Split Table in the pop-up menu. You can also use Table → Split
Table from the main menu.
3) A Split Table dialog box pops up. You can select No heading or an alternative formatting
for the heading—the top row(s) of the new table.
4) Click OK. The table is then split into two tables separated by a blank paragraph.

Note

If cells in one table include formulas using data from the other table, those cells willcontain an error message: **Expression is faulty**.

To merge two tables:1) Delete the blank paragraph between the tables. You must use the Delete key (not the
Backspace key) to do this.
2) Select a cell in the second table.
3) Right-click and choose Merge Tables in the pop-up menu. You can also use Table →Merge Table from the main menu.

Tip

To see clearly where the paragraphs are and to delete them easily, choose View →Nonprinting Characters (Ctrl+F10) or click the ¶ button in the Standard toolbar.

Deleting a table
To delete a table:
1) Click anywhere in the table.
2) Choose Table → Delete → Table from the main menu.
Or:1) Select from the end of the paragraph before the table to the start of the paragraph after thetable.
2) Press the Delete or the Backspace key.

Note

The second method also merges the paragraph after the table with the paragraphbefore the table, which may not be what you want.

Copying a table
To copy a table from one part of the document and paste it into another part:
1) Click anywhere in the table.
2) From the main menu choose Table → Select → Table.
3) Press Control+C or click the Copy icon on the Standard toolbar.
4) Move the cursor to the target position and click on it to fix the insertion point.
5) Press Control+V or click the Paste icon in the Standard toolbar.

Additional table operations

23

Moving a table
To move a table from one part of a document to another part:
1) Click anywhere in the table.
2) From the main menu, choose Table → Select → Table.
3) Press Control+X or click the Cut icon in the Standard toolbar. (This step removes thecontents of the cells but leaves the empty cells, which must be removed in step 6.)
4) Move the cursor to the target position and click on it to fix the insertion point.
5) Press Control+V or click the Paste icon in the Standard toolbar. (This pastes the cells andtheir contents and formatting.)
6) Return to the original table, click somewhere in it and then choose Table → Delete → Table
from the main menu.

Inserting a paragraph before or after a table
To insert a paragraph before a table, position the cursor before any text or other contents in thefirst (upper left-hand) cell and press Enter or Alt+Enter. To insert a paragraph after a table, position
the cursor after any text in the last (lower right-hand) cell and press Alt+Enter.

Note

Captions are considered as paragraphs separate from the table itself. If there is acaption below a table, for example, just position the cursor at the end of the caption
and press Enter.

Using tables as a page layout tool
Tables may be used as a page layout tool to position text in a document instead of using tabs orspaces. For example, the Tip below is formatted as a table.
For more information and tips about using tables in page layout, see Chapter 4. Formatting Pages.
When inserting a table used for layout, you may wish to deselect the Heading and
Border options (see Inserting a new table on page 4).

Tip

To remove the borders from an existing table, right-click on the table, choose Table
from the pop-up menu, select the Borders tab (see Figure 6 on page 12), and selectthe icon for no borders.

The Table menu and toolbar
All of the table commands described in this chapter are conveniently located in the main menu
under the Table item and on the Table toolbar, shown in Figure 13.
Table 1 describes the effects of using these icons. When you create a table or select an existingtable, the Table toolbar may be displayed automatically, or you can manually display it by clicking
View → Toolbars → Table. The toolbar can float over the main Writer window (as shown in Figure13), or it can be docked along any edge of the main window. See Chapter 1, Introducing Writer, formore about docking and floating toolbars, and how to hide and display specific tools on a toolbar.

24

Working with Tables

1 Table
2 Line Style
3 Line Color (border)
4 Borders
5 Background Color
6 Merge Cells
7 Split Cells
8 Optimize

9 Top
10 Center (vertical)
11 Bottom
12 Insert Row
13 Insert Column
14 Delete Row
15 Delete Column
16 Select Table

17 Select Column
18 Select Row
19 AutoFormat
20 Table Properties
21 Sort22 SumFigure 13: Table toolbar
Table 1: Functions of the icons on the Table toolbar
Name

Description

Table

Opens the Insert Table dialog box where you can set up and insert a table into
the document, name the table for use with the Navigator, and set some otheroptions. If you press the small black triangle pointing down next to the icon, you
can use the mouse to drag to select the number of rows and columns to include
in the table.

Line Style

Opens the Border Style window where you can modify the border line style.

Line Color(border)

Opens the Border Color window where you can modify the border color.

Borders

Opens the Borders window where you can select which sides of the table or of
the selected cells will have a border.

Background
Color

Opens the Background toolbar where you can select the background color of
the table or of the selected cells.

Merge Cells

Combines the selected cells into a single cell. Refer to Merging and splitting
cells on page 11 for a description of the effect of this button.

Split Cells

Opens the Split Cell dialog box where you can define how to split a cell. Refer
to Merging and splitting cells on page 11 for a description of the effect of thisbutton.

Optimize

Opens the a drop down menu with four options you can use to let LibreOffice
optimize the distribution of the columns or rows or optimize the row height orcolumn width.

Top

Press this button to align the contents of the selected cells to the top of the cell.

Center (vertical)

Press this button to align the contents of the selected cells to the vertical centerof the cell.

BottomPress this button to align the contents of the selected cells to the bottom of thecell.

The Table menu and toolbar

25

Name

Description

Insert Row

Inserts a row below the selected row.

Insert Column

Inserts a column after the selected column.

Delete Row

Deletes the selected row(s) from the table.

Delete Column

Deletes the selected column(s) from the table.

Select Table

Selects the entire table.

Select Column

Selects the column in which the cursor is positioned.

Select Row

Selects the row in which the cursor is positioned.

AutoFormat

Opens the AutoFormat dialog box where you can select among several
predefined formatting sets. Each set is characterized by its own fonts, shading,and border styles. You can also select AutoFormat from the Insert Table dialog
box.

Table Properties

Opens the Table Format dialog box where you can control all the properties of
the table, for example name, alignment, spacing, column width, borders, andbackground.

Sort

Opens the Sort dialog box where you can specify the sort criteria for theselected cells.

Sum

Activates the Sum function. Refer to “Using spreadsheet functions in a table” onpage 18 for an example of using this function.

26

Working with Tables