Table headers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sam Hobbs
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Sam Hobbs

How do I make a table cell a header?

Or is there nothing in Word for specifying a cell as a header? I sure
thought I had done that but it has been a long time. Perhaps I am just too
accustomed to HTML, in which there are separate tags for header cells.

I looked in the Word documentation and could not find anything, except
something describing how to "Repeat a table heading on subsequent pages",
which sure implies that there is something such as "a table heading" in Word
too. If that is true, then it is impossible to find in the Word
documentation how to make them. If that is not true, then the haeding
"Repeat a table heading...." is sure misleading.
 
Hi Sam,

You do not say which version of Word. However, in Word 2000 do the
following steps:

1. Select the top table rows that you want to be a header.
2. On the Menu bar click on "Table".
3. On the drop down menu find "Heading Rows Repeat" and click on it.

As the table expands to a second page, or newspaper column if that is set
up, the rows you selected will be repeated. The "header" must be one, or
more, of the first table rows and must be consecutive rows. If any other
rows are selected the "Heading Rows Repeat" will be disabled( Grayed out ).

There may be a keyboard shortcut for this but I do not know of one. Maybe
someone else can give you the shortcut keys if there is one.

Jerry Bodoff
 
Thnk you for your thorough answer. I am sorry, but my question was not
clear. My question is "How do I make a table cell a header?". The part about
how to make make the header repeat made the question confusing. I did not
intend to ask how to make the header repeat. I meant to ask how to make the
header; that is, how to specify that a row is a header row.

I know that many people put their question after a long explanation, but
since I have answered thousands of questions in another forum, I know how
much it helps to have the question at the top. Unfortunately, many people
don't expect the question to be at the top, so it is confusing to have the
question at the top; right? Sorry.
 
I think your terminology may be confusing everyone (including possibly
yourself). A header is something that repeats at the top of the page. A
heading is a particular kind of style. A table can have a heading row (or
rows) that, like a page header, repeat(s) at the top of each page. In order
to make a heading row repeat, you check the appropriate option on the Table
menu. In Word 2000 and up, it's Heading Rows Repeat; in earlier versions,
it's just Heading, I think.

If you are applying a table style, you can define a specific format for the
top row (confusingly identified as "Header row").

If you are asking about putting a table (cell) in the page header, then what
is your question? You can create a table in the header just as you can
anywhere else.

I think you're still asking the question answered in my first paragraph,
though. You make a row (not a cell) a heading row by selecting it and
checking Heading Rows Repeat. You can have as many heading rows as you want,
but they must be contiguous and at the top of the table. If you don't want
them to repeat, then there is no point in designating them as heading rows.
You can still, however, apply heading styles.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
The answer Jeffery provided was what you were looking for. If you want
to make a row a header row then select the row and go to Table/Heading
Rows Repeat.

In previous versions the menu item was called "Headings" but it wasn't
clear that a heading row or rows would repeat if the table split
across a page so they included additional text to help clarify the
functionality.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
I was trying to be nice but that made me vulnerable to people that think I
don't understand.

A header is something that is at the beginning of something and the header
provides information about what follows. Headers are used abundantly in
data, such as order entry data and accounting system trasactions. In most
situations, such as for data as I described, there is not a concept of a
page for which the header needs to be repeated for.

Regardlous of that, let's use something more relevant. Perhaps you are not
familiar with HTML tables, because if you were, you would understand what I
meant. Using FrontPage, when we create a table, we can specify that a cell
is a header cell. For each header cell, FrontPage uses a "TH" tag instead of
a "TD" tag. HTML has style settings for TH tags that are different from TD
tags.

It is the formatting that I mean when I say "header". In Word, when I use
"Heading Rows Repeat", the formatting does not change, so it is not what I
am asking about. Perhaps Word does not have the feature I thought it does,
and if so, then that is the answer. I realize that I can create a style that
I use with table headers and I know how to do that.
 
When I use "Heading Rows Repeat", the formatting does not change; therefore
it is not what I am looking for.
 
I repeat that if you use a table style, you can define specific formatting
for the heading row. If you save a Word document as a Web page, that row (or
a row designated as a heading row using Heading Rows Repeat) will most
likely be interpreted as a header row in the in the HTML table. Aside from
that, the first row of any table is interpreted by Word as a "header row"
for the purpose of, say, mail merges (where the first row is used to provide
merge field names).

Please be aware that we are also "trying to be nice," but if you insist on
trying to apply nonstandard terminology to Word, then you are inevitably
going to foster the impression that you know less about Word than those who
are trying to help you. The descriptions and examples you give are
applicable to Excel spreadsheets; they are not applicable to Word documents.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I also repeat myself when I say I know how to create and use a custom style.

I assume the answer is that the feature I asked about does not exist in
Word, and if so, then that is all I need to know.

What "nonstandard terminology"? If you mean "header" and "heading", I am
sure not familiar with the definitions you specify. Where are they defined?
If I know what the standard definitions are, then I will try to use the
correct terminology. However since this is the new users group, it will
sometimes be necessary to be a little more flexible in the use of
terminology.

I have used a variety of word processors, including "Script", IBM's
Mainframe word processing software. GML is a set of Script macros and SGML
is a standardized version of GML. HTML is a non-proprietary format based
upon SGML. I have used terminology that I am familiar with from a variety of
environments.

Again, if it is standard terminology, then I am interested in knowing where
it is defined.
 
I have an idea you are not familiar with the concept of "table styles,"
which are different from paragraph styles. As for terminology, I have to
confess that Word's UI and Help are somewhat inconsistent in referring to
the top row(s) of a table. A repeated row or rows is/are consistently
described as "heading row(s)," while the Sort and Table Style dialogs use
the term "header row" for the (not necessarily repeating) top row (only a
single one permitted).
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Yes, I have not seen "table styles" anywhere. I have seen paragraph and
character styles, but not table styles.

I do now see that styles can be either a paragraph, character, table or list
style. I see that I can specify a style for the first row, which means that
the first row can be considered (the equivalent of) a header automatically.
I also see that I can specify that style to be a default style. So that sure
does help, thank you.
 
Hi Sam
Unless you use one of the built in table autoformats, then the heading
row(s) of a table are formatted in the same way as the rest of your text
until you change that. All the heading rows repeat option does is make sure
that the first row(s) of your table are repeated on subsequent pages. That
setting has no effect on formatting - you have to format the header row the
way you want it.
Genine
 
Look at my original question; I already understood what you are saying about
"Heading Rows Repeat". Just to clarify that previous comment, "Heading Rows
Repeat" is misleading. I was unable to find the description of "Heading
Rows". So the only (repeat only) reason I mentioned "Heading Rows Repeat" is
because it implies there is such a thing as "Heading Rows". Unfortunately my
comment about "Heading Rows Repeat" confused people.

If the original answer had been that:

(1) the first row is assumed to be a header
(2) there is a table style that can be used to specify formatting of the
first row only

then this discussion would have been much, much smaller. One problem is that
the description in the documentation of the first row being assumed to be a
header is either obscure or non-existant. The name or title "Heading Rows
Repeat" is clear enough about what it does that I don't need to refer to the
documentation nor ask here about it.
 
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