How to make different tables in Google Docs

. Tables allow you to separate your information into columns/rows like you would in an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheets. To add and customize a table Google Docs, follow these steps.

Creating Tables

Decide where you want your table located in your Google doc and place your cursor there.
Go to Insert (top menu) and select Table. Then you can actually select how many columns/rows you want. You can add or take away later.
There are several ways to move your cursor around within your table.
1. You can click within individual cells to type in information.
2. “Tab” will take you from left to right within the table.
3. “Shift” will take you from right to left.
4. The up and down arrow keys will take you up or down within the table.

Formatting Cells, Rows, and Columns

You can adjust the size of rows or columns by clicking and dragging a line to the size you want.
You can format text as normal within the table by selecting the text and making any adjustments necessary (changing text, changing size, changing font, changing color of text, etc.). You can basically edit text just like you would in a Google doc or Word.
You can select one cell to make changes or multiple cells if you’re making the same changes to all.
To format text alignment within the table cells, just select the cell or cells you want to change and click the desired alignment from the options in the top menu.
You can also choose the text alignment in cells that have no text yet. Once you add text, they will show up in the chosen location within the cell.
You can change the background color in a cell, row, or table by highlighting the area and go to Background color in the top menu. Select the color you want and your cells will change to the selected color.

Adding and Deleting Rows/Columns

To insert a row, right click a cell and choose if you want to insert a row above or below the cell. To insert a column, right click a cell and choose whether to insert a column to the right or to the left.
To delete a row, select a cell in the row you want to delete. Right click and select “Delete row.”
To delete a column, select a cell in the column you want to delete. Right click and select “Delete Column.”

Table Properties

To customize your table options, select the entire table. Right click and go to “Table Properties.”
From here you can change the table border specs, row and column dimensions, background color, table alignment (in reference to where it’s located on the page), etc.

To create a table, you must first determine how many columns (which run up and down) and rows (which run left to right) you want to appear in your table. Cells are small, rectangular boxes where the rows and columns intersect. The number of columns and rows determines the number of cells in a table.
The table with the specified number of rows and columns is inserted.
1. Click in the cell you want to add text to.
2. Type your text.
You can use the arrow keys to navigate from cell to cell as you type. You can also press the Tab key to automatically move to the next cell.
You can add more columns and rows to a table after you’ve inserted it. This way, you’re not trapped using a fixed structure if you need to add more data later.
1. Click in a cell next to where you want to add a row or column.
2. Click Format on the menu bar.
3. Select Table.
4. Select an option to insert a row or column.
You can insert a row above or below the selected cell’s row, or a column to the left or right of the selected cell’s column.
You can delete rows and columns that you don’t want, in case you made a table that was bigger than you needed.

While Google Workspace offers Sheets, people still use Docs to create inline tables. Google is now letting you better create and customize tables in the Docs web app with a handful of upgrades.
These “several new ways to customize tables” in Google Docs starts with a new sidebar to manage a table’s properties. Similar to one for image editing, you can adjust Row, Column, and Alignment, while edits are “reflected in your document in real time.”

When working in the document, Google Docs makes heavy use of overlays that reveal on hover — like an “intuitive button for creating new rows or columns” — to:
Quickly add and arrange columns and rows
You can now easily drag a row or column to a different location.
Pin a table header row to repeat on each page

You can pin one or more rows in a table so they repeat on each page that the table appears on. This will make it easier to see column headers for long tables as you navigate a document.
Designate that a row should not be split across pages
You can designate that a table row should not be split across a page break. This ensures important content in tables sticks together and isn’t missed on the next page, and provides more control over formatting and layouts.
Sorting tables to better organize data.
It is now possible to sort the rows of your tables. Any pinned table headers will remain at the top of your table. Additionally, sorting table rows will group by type of content. This will help you to quickly visualize, understand, and organize your data better.
These customization improvements to tables in Google Docs are rolling out now for both personal and enterprise customers. They will be fully available in the coming weeks.
More on Google Docs:
- Google Docs rolling out file review & approval system to Workspace tiers
- Docs getting universal @ menu for inserting content, ‘Add page break before’
- Google Docs getting wider comment boxes, background watermark support
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