Create Two Tables Side by Side (Word 2007)

Creating a basic table is dead easy. But what if you want to create more than one table and place them side by side? When my colleague threw this question at me, I thought there may be a function that could quickly do this…there wasn’t. Fret not, there’s a way to resolve this!

In this tutorial, I’ll guide you on how to create two tables side by side, with each table having two columns and five rows.

1.  Select the Insert tab and click the Table button from the Tables group.

table1

2.  A dropdown box consisting of 10 squares (horizontally) and 8 squares (vertically) will launch. The 10 horizontal squares represent the table columns whereas the 8 vertical squares represent the table rows. Each square represent a table cell.

table2

3.  Move your pointer over the squares to highlight 5 columns and 5 rows, and left-click to select.

table3
4.  A blank 5×5 table will be inserted into your document.

table4

5.  As an example, I’ve populated the table with some information of a comparative nature, leaving the third column blank.

table5

6.  Resize the width of the third column so that it leaves a smaller space between the second and fourth column (i.e., move your pointer on the right border of the third column until it turns into a resize pointer  and drag it to the left, and vice versa).

table6

7.  The table will look like this:

table7

Note that the Site A, Site B, Site C and Site D columns are not distributed evenly.

8.  To distribute the columns evenly, highlight the first two columns, and select the Layout tab. Click the Distribute Columns button from the Cell Size group. Repeat the same for the last two columns.

table8

9.  The table is now evenly distributed except for the third column. Now, the trick is to make the third column “disappear”, so that it will appear as if there are two tables side by side. Highlight the third column and right-click it. From the pop-up menu, select Borders and Shading.

table9

10.  The Borders and Shading dialog box appears. Look at the Preview section. It displays the current state of the table borders.

table10
11.  You can either click (A) the three buttons on the left side of the diagram, or (B) click on the diagram to make the lines disappear. When you’re done, click the OK button.

table11

12.  Voila! Here are the two tables side by side! Nifty trick, eh?

table12
 

About perrinator

I wear many hats - blogger, writer, freelancer, gamer, traveler, baker, white-collar slave - I strive to offer valuable insights by sharing real-life examples of work-related challenges and how to address them. So, join me on this journey of learning and growth together!

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3 Comments on “Create Two Tables Side by Side (Word 2007)”

  1. Thank you so much!! That worked- what a pain in the derriere! You made that so easy and, more importantly, my document looks great! Thanks!

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