Table It!...Part 3...Resizing Columns

I'm assuming in this post that you've added a table to a Word document (accepting the default settings) and that you have the ruler displaying at the top of the page.

One of the tasks necessary when working with tables in a Word document is resizing columns and rows. For the most part, you should leave rows alone. Adjusting the row height can cause hidden text in cells...not a good thing and you'll go crazy looking for text you know you added. 

In the case of columns, you'll want to make adjustments. As is the usual case with MS Word, you can make adjustments in a number of ways. It's important to understand which adjustment method to use to get the desired results.

The most common method is simply to point your cursor at a column line to display the double arrows with the column marks. Click your mouse to grab the line and then move it right or left. For simple tables, this method is fine. However, as your tables become more complicated, you need to know about another method for moving columns.That method involves using the ruler to resize columns. I've posted limited information on the ruler. See Using the Ruler if you want to refresh your memory.

Displaying the Ruler and Moving a Column

• In Word 2003, click Insert, and then Ruler.
• In Word 2007 or 2010, click the View tab, and then click Ruler on the Show pane.

A ruler appears above the document with another ruler running down the left side of the document. The ruler above the document is the one of interest. The white area of the ruler is the typing area on your page.

Click in any cell in the table and the Move Table Column buttons appear in the ruler. Point your cursor at a Move Table Column button and double arrows with a tip popup appear.

To grab a button and move a column, point at the button in the ruler and click your mouse. Move your mouse right or left to move the column.

Why is this method important?
As your tables become more complicated (for example, when you merge cells in the middle of a table), the Move Table Column buttons serve as the master control for resizing columns. The more complicated your table becomes the more important it becomes to know when to use the buttons on the ruler to adjust columns.

You can see this in action by completing these steps.

1. Click your cursor in the third row of column one.
2. Hold down your mouse and move it to the right to select the third row of columns one and two. 
3. Let go of your mouse. Two cells are selected (highlighted).
4. Right-click in the selected cells to display a popup menu.
5. Click Merge Cells. The two cells becomes one cell that is two columns wide.
6. Point your cursor at the row four column line between columns one and two. A double headed arrow with column marks appears.
7. Click your mouse to select the column line and move it right or left. Let go of your mouse.
8. Notice that the column lines in rows one and two above the merged cells did not move. 
9. Click Ctrl + Z to undo the change. 
10. Use the Move Table Column button to move the column line and all lines in the table move...regardless of the merged cells or anything else you've done to the table.

The Move Table Column buttons can also be used to align cells correctly when they just get out of whack...and that can happen to the most experienced of Word users regardless of how easy or complicated the table might be. 

I know this is tedious but if you're going to work with tables you need to know about the less obvious controls that can save your sanity on occasion. 

iPiccy on YouTube

YouTube tutorials for iPiccy...

General: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGnBlrDhSdM

Add a watermark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGnBlrDhSdM

Make a word cloud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hFSYrm3OXU

...I think I'm in love...with a piece of software...

iPiccy...Picnik Replacement

For the most part, anyone who knows me will tell you that I hate art. Let me explain. I love art that is produced by other people. I've taken more than one art history course and loved it. I've taken anyone who will go with me to almost every museum available to me to see art. I have always admired the talent it takes to produce art...a talent that I am sadly lacking. Thus, I hate when I have to produce art. I'm at such a loss.

Being a technical writer means you have to produce art. I've become adept at using the tools to capture, crop, and clean up computer screen shots. It's a skill that I use to produce the art for this blog. I've hacked my way through photo editing software, which isn't the easiest software to use and can be mega expensive. In all cases, my employer was paying for the software so it wasn't a problem for me...well, except that I had to try to learn to use the stuff.

Genealogy opened up a whole new can a of worms for me because of photographs. It's easy enough to scan a photograph, but then there is the clean up. I've been using a free online photo editor called Picnik. In one click Picnik makes choices for you that cleans up a host of problems. Google came along and bought Picnik. Now they are going to move Picnik into a Creative Suite inside of Google +.

It's OK because I'm already a member of Google +. However, I always like options. I went poking around the net today, thinking I can't be the only one lamenting the loss of quick and easy access to Picnik and I wasn't. Even better, another searcher came up with what looks to be a more than adequate substitute: iPiccy.

In iPiccy you open a copy of your photo, click the Fix Image button and it does just that for you. You can apply the corrections, and then click the Save and Share button to save (and share if you like) the cleaned up photo. The bonus? If you poke around iPiccy, you'll find that you can do lots more than you could do in the basic Picnik. iPiccy is in beta right now. Who know what they will do with it in the future? But for today, there's an easy to use tool that gives you lots and lots of photo editing options.

With iPiccy, even I can create art...so go forth and be creative with iPiccy.

Before iPiccy

After iPiccy

After iPiccy

Table It!...Part 2

OK...so now we start at the real beginning...adding a table to a Word document in the first place.

Word 2007/2010 selections with the Insert Table dialog.

The method you use to insert a table in Word depends on the version of Word you are using. Therefore, I'm going to separate the instructions for Word 2007/2010 and Word 2003.

Word 2007/2010: Insert a Table
On the Insert tab, click Tables. The Insert Tables dialog appears. You have a number of options.

• If you are a visual person and you're going to accept system defaults (that means Word is picking options for you), move your cursor over the squares (properly called cells) to create a table with rows and columns. Move your cursor around and you'll see an expanding or contracting table in your doc. In the graphic above I have four columns and four rows highlighted in orange (selected). Click in the last highlighted square (lowest and farthest to the right) and that's the table you get. In addition, Design and Layout tabs appear and boy are they loaded with options.
• If you are a person who likes to see the dialog that controls the table, click the Insert Table... option. The dialog appears. This dialog is the long standing one in which you enter the number of columns and rows, and then you have additional options you can select. See the Word 2003 instructions below for information on these fields. After you click OK, Design and Layout tabs appear with lots of options.
• If you like maximum control, click Draw Table. A drawing pencil appears in your doc and you can draw individual cells. After you have drawn cells, click in your document to get rid of the pencil and get your cursor back. I'm usually not driven enough to use this method.
• If you are comfortable with an Excel spreadsheet, click the Excel Spreadsheet option. Word inserts a spreadsheet for you to work in. When you click outside of the spreadsheet, Word converts the speadsheet to a table and also removes boarders (the lines identifying each cell).
• If you want to see what MS Word has already formatted for you, click Quick Tables and the Built In tables dialog appears. If there is a table you like, click it and Word inserts it into your document. You can then replace placeholder text with your text.

Word 2003: Insert a Table
If you are still on Word 2003, you have fewer options when creating tables.

1. On the main menu, select Table, Insert, Table. The Insert Table dialog appears.
2. In Number of columns, enter the number of columns you want for your table. If you make a mistake, you can add columns later.
3. In Number of rows, enter the number of rows you want for your table. If you make a mistake, you can add rows later...you already know the shortcut.
4. Accept the default AutoFit behavior or alter it.
   --In Fixed column width, if you accept the default of Auto, the table will resize itself in relation to the margins; that is, the entire width of the page. You can set the width using the up and down arrows to create a table that isn't as wide; that is, it doesn't go margin to margin. In addition, you can make adjustments on the fly (a topic I'll talk about later).
   --In AutoFit to contents, select this option if you want the width of a column governed by its contents. For example, a column with three characters in it will be narrower than a column with ten characters.
   --In AutoFit to window, select this option if you want a table that has equal columns spaced across the width of the page.  In addition, you can make adjustments on the fly (a topic I'll talk about later).
5. Click the Auto Format button to display the Table AutoFormat dialog. The dialog includes preformatted tables that Word Pros created for you. If you find one that you like, select it, and then click OK.
6. Click Remember dimensions for new tables if you altered the Fixed column width in step 4. Each time you insert a new table, Word does so with the fixed column width you selected. To turn this off, select Auto in Fixed column width.

 If adding a table was a mystery to you before, you should have had an enlightening read...boring but enlightening. Upcoming posts are going to be much more interesting. You can do some cool stuff with tables.

Too Cool QR Tool...

QR codes are turning up everywhere. They are usually black and white and square...boring! Unitag gives you options. 

QR codes can be in color.

QR codes codes can appear with different alignments.

QR codes can include text.

QR codes can include a background picture.

At RootsTech Thomas MacEntee more or less indicated that QR codes should be on just about anything that you can get them to stick to...a tee-shirt, a mug, anything printed, gravestones... However, as you can see, you don't need to be stuck with the plain black and white version. You can add color and interest. To play with this too cool tool, visit Unitag (http://www.unitaglive.com/qrcode) and get creative.

Table It!...Part 1

While at RootsTech, I had the pleasure of talking to Michelle, a follower of this blog. She suggested that I write about adding tables to a Word document. Michelle explained that she likes to use tables to show census results in reports that she prepares for clients.

I'm going to start this series with a tip on how to add rows to the middle of a table. I'm starting with this piece of info because most people work their way through inserting a table but struggle when they have to add a row mid table. The shortcut is so hidden that most people don't know about it and it's handy to know.

Add a Row Mid Table on the Fly

1. After you have a table inserted, turn on the hidden codes and look for the little squares to the right of the table. In the example above, you need to insert a row between Michael Jones and Nathan Jones.
2. Look at the end of the row for Michael Jones.
3. Click your cursor to the right of the line ending the table row and the left of the little square.
4. Press the Enter key. Word adds an empty row between Michael Jones and Nathan Jones and moves your cursor to the first empty cell.

This method works in any version of Word. After you know where to place your cursor, you don't need to have the hidden codes showing. You can simply click to the right of the row where you want to add the row and press Enter. However, you need to see the symbols the first time you insert a row so that you know why it's working.

I'll start at the beginning in my next post.

RootsTech is over...

Went to the final sessions today. Interestingly, they didn't have a closing session. Most big conferences I've attended have had them.

I went to two sessions today--One about using the Library of Congress (LOC) website and the second one about using Fold3.

The LOC one was good. At least I'll have a better chance of navigating the site in the future.

The one on Fold3 was better. They've added so much to Fold3...I didn't realize how it had evolved. I think this is the one I'm more likely to use. Not that I'd turn down info from the LOC but it looks like I can do so much more with Fold3.

In going through the exhibition hall, I found there seems to be a new movement afoot to put every body's work in a cloud (upload it to a server somewhere in a server farm). Lots of commercial software has been moving in this direction. You access the program in the cloud, you work in the cloud, and you store in the cloud. I know the cloud. I trust the cloud. A cloud can be a good place (think Katrina in New Orleans). However, the business model concerns me.

When I buy a software package that I install on my laptop, it's mine. I can put info in it and port it out to anyplace or anyone whenever I want. When you add the info to one of the cloud programs, what do you have in hand and how much control do you have on how the info is used? I'm not saying that any info would be misused. The "cloud people" constantly tell you that you own the information. They just store it for you and provide the program. I kept asking myself the question, "So, why do they keep trying to reassure me?"

When you set up one of these things up, some let you import from your current software while others require that you re-enter all of your information (ugh!). I've got about 1,800 people in one database alone.

The pricing also concerns me. I can go with a version of software I own for $x.xx and I own it. I don't have to pay storage fees, access fees, nothing. When a new version comes out, I can plunk down more cash or not. When your info is in a cloud and you can't or don't want to pay the annual fee anymore, what happens? Do you just walk away from your work? Does the cloud keep it?

From my point of view, it's handing over too much control to another party who will be able to control the price. It's low now but what will it be five years from now?

If I need cloud storage (and I do because I live in Florida), I have lots of other options some of which are free. Yes they require a bit more work; for example, you might have to move copies of files into special folders that get backed up to the cloud. But that's minor when you look five years down the road at how these genealogy-related cloud businesses might be operating. Again, I don't mean to cast stones; however, I do think a "buyer beware" is in order.

At RootsTech and then back at the Library

Went to two sessions this p.m. and both turned out to be good ones.

Thomas MacEntee did one on using QR codes, including places you should use them...everywhere you can get one to stay in place. Some funeral directors are even offering to put them on gravestones.

The second session involved turning a book into an eBook. It looks to be surprisingly easy. I took lots of notes so we'll see how it works out.

b.t.w. The tablet (ASUS Transformer) turned out to be OK for note taking. I'm still not convinced it's a reasonable thing for someone to own. Right now I'm looking at it as a pure luxury. I've got it with me in the library right now. I downloaded group sheets easily enough but they are pretty useless for doing any substantial research. As noted in my previous post, I did break down and buy Roots Magic. The previous version, which I looked at and walked away from, had a mobile app in it. I'm assuming that the current version does too. I'll be very disappointed if it doesn't.

The scanner has turned out to be a good thing. Pattie and I have been using it to scan pages in books. No more copy cards! And no more lugging home stacks of paper!

More to come...

Exhausted! But happy at RootsTech...

I'm hold up in the hotel room this a.m. creating group sheets for research later this morning at the library. The first thing on the conference schedule today that I'm interested in isn't until 1:45 p.m. So I'll go hang out at the library and do research using my new tablet. I figure if this thing is really going to be worth the money then I need to learn to use it and use it well.

I also broke down and bought a copy of Roots Magic. I've used old PAF for years because nobody could ever tell me enough to convince me to give it up. It's very basic but also highly functional. The one thing I've been loath to give up is the Custom User field, which is where I put all of my research coding. I finally got a chance to describe what I'm doing to software people. Most of them had glazed over eyes. Only the Roots Magic guy could tell me how to do what I do in his software. He even told me I could sort based on the codes...new functionally that will help! I plunked down my cash. Pattie took a picture because she couldn't believe that someone had finally talked me into an up-to-date program. Because I'm buying it at the conference, I got a bonus...a user guide. Being a technical writer, I'll read it.

Pattie took off early this a.m. to hang out in the exhibitor's area. There are all sorts of unannounced events happening on the floor. A demo here, a discussion there, and networking like crazy. MicroSoft set up a playground with ping pong and the like. It's getting lots of use.

Geneabloggers are all running around wearing big colorful beads so we can identify each other. Apparently, there are quite a few of us here at RootsTech based on the beads I see going to and fro in the crowd. We've been talking to each other. I need to spend some time reading more of these blogs. The people are interesting and I would imagine that extends to their blogs too.

So it's off to the shower before housekeeping arrives and gets upset with me for not leaving the room so they can do their job and go home.

More later...

Pam and Pattie in a two-room suite

Pattie's husband has really really out done himself this time. He booked us into a two room suite. We have the bedroom area and then we have the den...two TVs, loads of drawer space, a table with four chairs (in the den) and a microwave and frig. The bathroom is well planned and the pillows are to die for. We are a bit far a field. So we had to learn to take the Greenline tram. It's easy and kinda fun.

On the tram ride in today, we started talking to someone who directed us to the back door of the Salt Palace...a short cut that saved us lots of walking and put us right where we need to be for registration. We've already got our badges and tote bags.

I'm doing this post from the basement of the Family History Library...still looking for English relatives. It's been several years since we've been to the library and things have changed. Computers are everywhere as are table top plugs. The library allows you to bring bags in. You can roll your computer along rather than lug it. The tables have brass rings at the end. I couldn't figure out what they were for until I saw a lady anchor her bags to one with what looked like a bicycle wire complete with a lock. What a hoot!

Since the conference starts tomorrow, the library is manned by lots of extra people. I've already had one librarian explain how to do a more targeted search with the batch numbers.

More to come later...