[Word] Convert Table to Columns

[Phil Rabichow]

Hi Anita:
The eraser does more than remove borders.  It will remove the cells.  
However, it is tricky to use & I'm not sure how many nested tables that 
you have inside your main table.  I'm not sure if you can cut & paste 
parts of your table & then work from there.

Hope this helps,
Phil
To assist in maintaining the thread for others who are interested, please post any follow-up question or reply in the newsgroup and not directly to me:-)



Duvall, Anita L. wrote:
> Phil and Ron - thanks for the input.  Using the eraser didn't remove 
> the outer structure - it only turned the borders off.  It merged cells 
> when used within the table, which didn't work for what I was trying to do.
>  
> I need to get rid of nested tables for section 508 compliance.  I 
> would love to change someone's mind, but I can't change the law.  
> While nested tables look great and are easy for someone to "see" and 
> follow either on screen or on paper, they aren't considered accessible 
> for someone with visual impairments.  Apparently screen reader 
> software doesn't deal well with nested tables and/or merged cells (it 
> isn't simply a case of turning off the lines, the screen reader still 
> sees the structure).  My idea was to simply convert the outer tables 
> to columns so that I would no longer have nested tables.
>  
> I have a ton of documentation that used the nested tables approach and 
> now has to be converted/cleaned up so it can be posted on our Intranet 
> (which means it has to be accessible for those with visual 
> impairments).  I was hoping for an easy way, but it looks like 
> remediation is going to be as bad as simply coming up with a new 
> format/template and recreating the documents.  <sigh>
>  
> Anita
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* word-bounces at dcomp.com [mailto:word-bounces at dcomp.com] *On 
> Behalf Of *Ron Solecki
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 17, 2010 6:30 PM
> *To:* DailyWordTips
> *Subject:* Re: [Word] Convert Table to Columns
>
> AFIK here is no clean and easy way to do it.  Phill's approach is one 
> way, another is that you can use the "convert to text" function on the 
> lines that do NOT have embedded tables.  Convert with Tabs.  Then you 
> would have to manually recreate the lines with Nested tables.
>
> OK, dumb question, going back to first principles.  Why do you want to 
> do this?  What do you hope to achieve?  Is this your idea or a request 
> from some other user?  If it is your idea, seriously consider changing 
> your mind, and if it someone else's, change their mind ;) .
>
> Using tables to maintain row and column associations is almost the 
> only way to do it, short of returning to totally manual approach using 
> spaces and tabs to simulate the tabular arrangement.  But that way it 
> is a *itch to make changes later.  Every time I encounter a "manual 
> table" I go out of my way to "invest" the time to make it into a 
> "real" table. 
>
> If all you want/need to do is get rid of the grid lines, simply turn 
> them off, so they don't print.  Use Table /Gridlines Hide-Show or   
> Format / Borders & Shading / Borders tab / None
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 16:35, Phil Rabichow <phrab at socal.rr.com 
> <mailto:phrab at socal.rr.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Anita:
>     I'm not sure it's easier, but you could bring up the Tables &
>     Borders toolbar & use the eraser to carefully erase the outer
>     table...leaving the nested tables.  You'd still have to clean up
>     things a bit.
>
>     Hope this helps,
>     Phil
>     To assist in maintaining the thread for others who are interested,
>     please post any follow-up question or reply in the newsgroup and
>     not directly to me:-)
>
>
>
>     Duvall, Anita L. wrote:
>
>
>         Using Word 2003, is there any way to convert a table into
>         regular columns (removing the table structure) using built-in
>         options?  I know you can convert columns to tables, but I need
>         to do the reverse.  I have a document that was developed using
>         tables to layout the information.  Many of those tables are
>         one row by two column tables which contain nested tables.  I
>         need to convert the main table to columns, leaving the nested
>         table as is.
>         For example, my table currently looks like this (column
>         indicators for information purposes only - they don't exist in
>         my document):
>
>         table           table
>         column 1        column 2
>         How to          To log off the system, complete
>         log off the     the following steps:
>         system          [nested table here - two column, multi row]
>                        step    action
>                        1.      do something
>                        2.      do something else
>                        3.      do the last thing
>
>         What I need is simply to remove the "outer" table structure.
>          I want the layout to look identical.
>
>         regular         regular
>         column1         column2
>         How to          To log off the system, complete
>         log off the     the following steps:
>         system          [nested table here - two column, multi row]
>                        [table will no longer be nested]
>                        step    action
>                        1.      do something
>                        2.      do something else
>                        3.      do the last thing
>
>         I've been selecting the table, converting it to text, then
>         converting that to columns, and inserting the column break in
>         the correct place.  Is there any easier way to do this (other
>         than macros)?
>
>         Thanks,
>         Anita
>
>         ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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