Table It!...Part 7...Turn Word Table into Graphics

Brace yourself. It's another zinger!

If you remember, I'm trying to place a landscape size table into a portrait oriented document. I've also made the assumption that since the original project was a report to a client that the document is several pages in length. To get the table to appear mid-document, I need to convert it to two graphics and turn the graphics. I've talked about a similar task once before. See Turn the Graphic or Turn the Page and Flip that Graphic for more information on what your options are and why you would want to rotate the graphic instead of the page. At any rate, we want a document that ends up looking like this...

Notice that this sample has mirrored margins and the second page has running text beside the graphic.

To capture part one of the table:

1. Open the landscape Word document with the table. 
2. Set your view to about 70%. You need to adjust your display so that you can capture all of the table on page one in one window. Depending on your screen size, you might need to fuss with your system a bit to get the same results. After page one of the table has been turned into a graphic, you can resize it as you would any other graphic.
   --Word 2003: On the View menu, click Zoom. Under Zoom to, enter 70%. Or, if you happen to have the Standard toolbar displaying, you can enter 70% in the Zoom box, which most likely has 100% in it.
   --Word 2007/2010: You can use the slider in the lower right of the page. Or, you can select View, and then click the Zoom button to display the Zoom dialog. In Percent, enter 70%, and then click OK. 
3. Click the PrintScreen button. Word adds a copy of your screen on the Word clipboard (temporary memory area). If you're working on a laptop, you need to press a combination of color coded keys. On my laptop, I press FN +PRTSC. 

To create the graphic:

1. Open the graphics program Paint. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint. The program opens. 
2. Paste the screen capture. Hold down the Ctrl key and type V (Ctrl + V). 
3. Click the Select tool.
   
4. With your mouse, click in the upper left of the table on page one and move your cursor to the lower right of the table section on page one. 
5. Let go of the mouse. Paint has added a dotted line around the selected area. The outlined area is what your graphic will look like.
6. Crop the selected area.
   --In Windows 2007/2010, click the Crop button beside the Select tool. Paint displays the cropped area.
   --In earlier versions of Windows, copy the selected area (Ctrl + C). Open another instance of Paint.  Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint.  Paste (Ctrl + V) the selected area. 
7. Save the cropped table. Select File, and then Save As to display the Save As dialog. 
8. In File name, add a name; for example, 1850 Table 1.
9. In Save as type, select PNG (*.png). Your version of Paint might default to .png. Just be sure to confirm you have the right file format selected so that you don't loose color in the graphic. 
10. Click the Save button. Do not leave Paint or close the graphic. 

To rotate the graphic:

• In Paint 2003 or 2007, select Image, Flip/Rotate, Rotate by angle, 90 degrees, and then click OK.
• In Paint 2010, select Rotate on the Home tab, and then select Rotate Left 90 degrees. 

Save the graphic. If you're asked if you want to replace the current version, select yes.

To create part two of the table:
Repeat the instructions above to convert the section of the table that is on page 2 of your landscaped Word document. After you have the two graphics, you're ready to insert the graphics into a document.

You might have to use your imagination on this part. Or, if you happen to have a document that is several pages long, open it, save it under another name (for example, Junk), and complete these instructions to see how the graphics are inserted.

Insert graphics into document:

1. Open the document in to which you want to insert the graphics. 
2. Type the text: 1850 Census Entries for McKee in Randolph County, Illinois.
3. Apply a Heading 3 style.
   (See Electronic Table of Contents and Styles if you need help applying a heading style.)
4. Make a local change so that the title is on a new page. Right-click to display the popup menu, select Paragraph, click the Line and Page Breaks tab, select Page break before in the Pagination group, and then click OK. 
5. Press the Enter key to create a new empty line. 
6. Insert the part one graphic.
   --In Word 2007/2010: Select Insert, and then select Picture. The Insert Picture dialog appears. Locate the page one graphic (1850 Table 1), click it once to select it, and then click the Insert button.
   --In Word 2003:  Select Insert, and then select Picture. Select From File to display the Insert Picture dialog.  Locate the page one graphic (1850 Table 1), click it once to select it, and then click the Insert button.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add the page 2 graphic (1850 Table 2 if you followed the naming convention).

To adjust text wrap:

This step is optional and will depend on how much room you have on the page where you placed the last graphic. If you look at the particular example that I've created, the graphic covers about 1/3 of the page, which means that about 2/3 of the page is empty. You can leave the space empty...white space isn't necessarily a bad thing...or you can change the text wrap option around the graphic, which will allow you to type text in the 2/3 of the page that is empty.

1. Right-click the graphic to display a popup menu.
2. Select the Square text wrap option.
   --Word 2007/2010: Select Wrap Text, and click Square, and then click OK.
   --Word 2003: Select Format Picture, click the Layout tab, and then click the Advanced button.  Click  Square, and then click OK.  
3. Click your mouse to the right of the graphic. Your cursor will begin to flash in the first line beside the graphic. 

Comments

Your page should be finished and should look similar to these pages.

Can you spot the one change that you could make to the second page graphic? Look at the alignment of the two graphics. The graphic on the second page is slightly higher than the one on the first page. The graphic on the first page has a title that is pushing it down on the page. You have two options to fix the alignment.

1. Click the graphic to select it and press the Enter key to add an empty line before graphic. One empty line is frequently enough to create a better alignment...not perfect but better. You can make a local change using the Paragraph dialog to get the alignment closer (add space before/after to adjust the graphic alignment). For help, see Spacing: Before/After in the post Format-->Paragraph. You may also want to add a page break, which also affects spacing. While you have the Paragraph dialog open, click the Line and Page Breaks tab, click Page Break Before in the Pagination group, and then click OK. If you think you're going to complete these steps more than once, create a style (I call mine Spacer).
2. Click the graphic and do not release your mouse button. Use your mouse to move the graphic down so that it's more closely aligned. 

So are you gasping yet? I am...actually I'm talking to the trainers at work to see if I can use some software to produce what are basically movies. If we're going to get this complicated, I perhaps need to get a bit more sophisticated.

Upcoming posts are going to involve creating the sidebar title and exploring the many other options that are included in table-related dialogs. We'll also create additional tables. I'll pick up posting on tables again at the beginning of next week.