Thanks for the great idea, Klaus!

Wai,

You may find it easiest to create a pre-formatted table via AutoText. This
is much quicker than formatting a table via Table menu -> Insert -> Table.

My version is Word 2001 on the Mac; your version may be slightly different.

In the table I formatted, I wanted only the horizontal lines to show between
the cells when printed; those lines are a quarter of a point in thickness;
the columns are of fixed width (since setting tables to automatically adjust
cell sizes makes Word more prone to failure); text does not break between
pages; and the style "table text" is applied in the cells. To space the
table within the body text of the document, the table is preceded by a
paragraph mark with "Keep with next" and no leading. A similar paragraph
mark, but without "Keep with next", follows the table.

(If I started most of my tables with emboldened column headings, I would
apply my emboldened custom style "table hdg" to the first row before making
the AutoText entry. If I wanted each cell to allow its text to split between
two pages, I would select the whole table from the left margin and choose
Table menu -> Table properties -> "Row" tab -> select "Allow rows to break
across pages". In practice I don't usually want the text in the type of
tables I use to break across pages, so I apply that characteristic manually
when I need it.)

To make the AutoText entry, I manually formatted the table and the preceding
and following paragraph marks (clicking the "Show paragraph mark" button
makes it easier), then selected the lot. Then Insert menu -> AutoText -> New
-> I named the entry "1ch, 1 col horiz lines" -> OK. I went on to make
"2ch", 3ch" and so on as I wanted. I used "1cb, 1 col all bordered" to
describe the same table but with vertical lines visible too ‹ which is the
format that most people use.

These tables can be inserted by keying the abbreviated term (for example,
"1ch") in the document -> select the abbreviated term (I use Shift-arrow) ->
Alt-Ctrl-v (Command-Option-v on the Mac).

They can also be inserted via the menu: Insertion point in required place.
Insert menu -> AutoText -> AutoTextŠ pop-out -> AutoText tab -> either
scroll to the entry or key the first (or more) letters of desired entry ->
select -> Insert (or Enter key; Return key on the Mac).

-- Clive Huggan