How to Format Your Tables in Microsoft Word

What's Coming Up With Windows 10? Your Features Cheat Sheet Is Here.

Since the Windows 10 feature update development cycle stretches out over approximately six months it can be challenging to keep up with the new features introduced for testing in any one of the last fifteen builds that have been released since the big feature update this past autumn.

So I thought it would be handy to recap the major feature updates that have made their way into Redstone 4 up until this point as a reference moving forward.

Timeline

The Fall Creators Update added capabilities that allowed you to create an ecosystem of devices across mobile, desktop, laptop, and tablets that enabled you to pick up on various activities that had been started on other devices.

Timeline takes that one step further and provides you with a shared list of activities across any Windows 10 device that you use each day. This activity listing is displayed in a beefed up Task View option and lists browsing and app activities for all of your connected Windows 10 devices.

This data is tied to your browsing and activity history and can be turned on or off plus you can control what content is used in this feature through the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard on the Activity History page.

Privacy

Privacy is probably the number one concern I hear about when talking to people about Windows 10.

Over the last few feature updates Microsoft has continued to address privacy concerns by adding more controls to the operating system under Windows Settings > Privacy  settings and the new Privacy Dashboard I mentioned previously that is located at http://account.microsoft.com.

In Redstone 4 a couple of new items have been added around privacy to provide users even more controls.

The Windows Diagnostics Data Viewer finally lets you delve into the data that is being sent to Microsoft as part of the Basic or Full Telemetry settings on Windows 10. You will be able to review and search the data that is being shared to Microsoft and Standard Users will be able to select their own level of telemetry (Basic or Full) even of the system admin has picked a different default. There is still no option to completely turn off telemetry but the end user should now have more clarity on what is being shared and at what level. These new options are located at Windows Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback.

In addition, there are new privacy related categories that include:

– Activity History: Works alongside of Timeline that I mentioned earlier

– Documents, Pictures, and Videos: New settings to control access to these data folders by either turning all access by other apps off or controlling that access on an app by app basis.

Quiet Hours

In the last released build of Redstone 4, 17083, Microsoft changed the name of Quiet Hours to Focus Assist. Based on social media reaction, many users are not enamored with the name change so it is possible that they could revert this name back to Quiet Hours,

However, they have added new capabilities that I hope carry over even if the name change does not survive.

Under Windows Settings > System > Focus assist you will find new options for setting this to Off, Priority, or Alarms only plus some automatic rules that turn alerts on or off during such scenarios like a specified  time frame, when duplicating your display, playing a game, or when you are at home.

Prior to this Quiet Hours only turned on or off and was very limited so the new feature set is great even of the name is not so hot for many.

Control Panel/Windows Settings

Microsoft has slowly been moving functionality from the legacy Control Panel that we have all used in Windows over the last few version of the OS into the new Windows Settings app that debut in Windows 10. That work continues in Redstone 4 with the migration of Fonts to Windows Settings.

In addition, fonts will now be available in the Microsoft Store for download.

Just like they have done with fonts, Microsoft is also moving language packs into the Microsoft Store in Redstone 4 to provide a central location to download and install them onto your system.

Many of you are familiar with the Disk Cleanup tool that has been part of Windows for a few versions now including Windows 10. Well, in Redstone 4 it has gained full functionality at Windows Settings > System > Storage.

There are options to run this clean up process manually or set it to be part of automatic Windows 10 system maintenance as it takes care of all the various temporary files that are stored on your system during its use.

Finally, if you use a local account on Windows 10 you can now setup a series of security questions to help you regain access to that account should it become necessary to unlock your local accounts password.

Microsoft Edge

The default browser in Windows 10, which continues to struggle with adoption by end users, has had several user interface tweaks made in Redstone 4 including:

• Improved Hub experience where you access Favorites, Reading list, Books, History, and Downloads.
• Autofill of web forms using cards so data can be saved and re-used.
• Enhanced reading experience for EPUB, PDF, and Edge’s Reading View mode.
• New Grammar Tools for EPUB books and Reading View.
• Full Screen reading mode.
• Improved synching of progress, notes, bookmarks, and annotations in books across various Windows 10 devices.
• Autofill passwords and extensions are now accessible when browsing InPrivate Mode.
• Edge Dev Tools can now be docked vertically in the browser window instead of only below the page content.
• Offline website support for push notifications.
• Web Media Extensions Package to support open-source media formats such as OGG Vorbis and Theora.

These improvements are great, but Edge needs to be separated out from the operating system for updates otherwise we will only continue to see major shifts in its capabilities twice a year.

Near Share

Using Bluetooth you can activate this feature and easily transfer files between devices that are close to each other. The sharing option appears on the Share Dialog that is part of Windows 10 and when other devices are active they will show up as targets for content such as documents, images, and even website addresses.

Cortana

Cortana’s Notebook which contains all of the information you have provided or given her permission to access over the time you have used the personal digital assistant has been revamped and laid out to make information easier to access.

List and Collections, which first arrived in the Fall Creators Update, have now been combined in Cortana into one UI for simpler access.

Cortana also has a complete set of commands to interface with Spotify Music which was the defacto replacement for Groove Music Pass when it expired at the end of 2017.

A rumor was floating around that Cortana would eventually be moved from her current spot next to the Start Menu and put her icon over where the current Action Center icon is located but with just a few weeks left in this development cycle I do not see Microsoft trying to do that at this late stage.

My People

This feature allows you to pin contacts to your Taskbar for quick interactions, file sharing, etc. While I have had my share of challenges in even getting it to work, there are some updates coming in Redstone 4 to the feature: You can now drag and drop to arrange contacts on the Taskbar, and the number of contacts you can place on the Taskbar has been expanded from three to ten.

Final Note: Great Features, But Don’t Get Too Attached

Development of Windows 10 has an ebb and flow that will see some new features or settings be introduced and subsequently removed from the planned feature update.

A good example of this happened in Redstone 4 over the last couple of weeks with the feature called Sets. It was briefly tested across a couple of released builds but ultimately the Windows Team decided it would not be part of Redstone 4.

This now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t approach to new features is a new normal for Windows development and while it is pretty easy to see the big ticket items that will likely make its way into the final feature update build nothing is guaranteed. They have also not announced a new marketing name for this feature update such as the Fall Creators Update or Creators Update. Maybe they are also moving away from these themed names and will now simply use the naming scheme of Windows 10 Version YYMM for these releases.

If you want to keep track of these new builds during the development cycle we track them with our  Redstone 4 tracker.

How to Format Your Tables in Microsoft Word

Your Word Tables can look better if you know how to properly format them.

You probably already know how to create tables in Microsoft Word. But formatting them is another matter. Formatting a table not only gives it the right look but can also make it easier to use. Maybe you’ve struggled with table formatting in the past, or perhaps you’d just like to learn all the different ways you can format a table. Your options abound in Word. You can create a table with a certain layout. You can apply border styles either to the whole table or to individual rows or columns. And you can give your table a snazzy new look by selecting an entire table style. Let’s go over the process for formatting tables in Microsoft Word.

As always, I’m using Word 2016 through my Office 365 subscription. But the process for formatting tables is similar across the past few versions of Word. Let’s start by launching Word with a blank new document. Click on the Insert ribbon and then click on the Table button. Word offers three ways to create a table. You can insert a table by moving your mouse cursor over a specific number of rows and columns in the field of squares. You can click on the Insert Table command and then enter the number of rows and columns you want. Or you can click on the Draw Table command and then draw your table with the right number of rows and columns. We’ll go with the first option to insert a table by hovering over a certain number of rows and columns and create a table with five rows and five columns.

After you’ve inserted your table, Word displays the Design ribbon where you can format your table. But we’ll add text to the cells first. We’re going to create a table showing certain recurring expenses. We’ll use the first row as a header row, meaning it will contain the header information for each column. Type the following five items, one in each cell of the header row: Groceries, Gas, Cell Phone, Utility, Internet. Then type dollar amounts in the other cells. Save the file.

The first thing we’ll do is autofit the cells so they’re only as wide as the content inside. You can do this a few ways. Double-click on one of the borders between two columns to autosize the column to the left. Select the table (to select the table, click on the table move handle in the upper left corner above the table) and then double-click one of the borders to resize all the cells in the table. Or right-click on the table move handle, move your mouse to the AutoFit command in the menu, and then click on the command to AutoFit to Contents. Let’s try the third option.

The width of each row shrinks to fit to the longest piece of content in any of its cells. Next, we want to play around with the borders of the table. Select the table by clicking the move handle. Click on the Border Styles button on the Design ribbon and choose a border style that you like. Click on the dropdown arrow for Line Style and choose a style for the border lines. Then click on the dropdown arrow for Line Weight and choose a line width. Click on the Borders button and move your mouse cursor to each border type to see how your table looks. You can choose top border, bottom border, all borders, outside borders, inside borders, and more. Let’s choose All Borders.

Okay, so the borders are the same across the entire table. Hmm, instead maybe you want the borders to be different throughout the table. Let’s create a different border for the outside of the table. Select the table. Click on the Border Styles button to choose a style. Click on the dropdown arrow for Line Style and choose a style for the border. Then click on the dropdown arrow for Line Weight and choose a line width. Click on the Borders button and select the option for Outside Borders.

Your outside borders adopt the new style while the inside borders stay the same. Now maybe you want to change borders just for the header row but not the top border, just the bottom and inside borders. To get that precise, you can paint the actual border you want. Again, click on the Border Styles button, the Line Style drowdown arrow, and then the Line Weight arrow to choose those attributes. No need to select the table ahead of time. Click on the Border Painter button on the Design ribbon. Your mouse cursor turns into paintbrush. Now just hold down your mouse button and drag over the borders that you want to take on the style you chose. We’ll paint the bottom border of the header row as well as that row’s inside borders.

When you’re done, click on the Border Painter button to turn off the paintbrush. Next, let’s apply a little shading to the table. Select the table and then click on the Shading button. Hover your mouse over the different colors in the palette. You can also click on the entry for More Colors to opt for a custom color. Click on the color you want to apply. The entire table takes on that shading. Next, maybe you want to apply shading but just to a specific row or column. Let’s take the header row. To select just the header row, move your mouse to the left of that row until the cursor turns into an arrow. Then click your mouse button to select that row. Now click on the Shading button again and hover over a specific color. Only your header row takes on that color. Click on the color to apply it.

Okay, you’ve gone through these steps to format your table a certain way. Maybe you like the formatting; maybe you don’t. One way to change all the formatting in one fell swoop is through a table style. The first thing you want to do at the Design toolbar is turn off the checkmark for First Column. You would leave that item turned on only if your first column is a header column, meaning it defines the other columns. The table we created doesn’t have a header column, so you should turn off the entry for First Column. Now hover over the different styles in the Table Style section on the Design ribbon. Click on the down arrow to see more styles and then the arrow with the horizontal line to see all the styles in one shot. Click on a style you like to apply it to your table.

From border styles to line styles to shading to table styles, Word offers a few ways to format your table. And you can always change the formatting as your table evolves so it looks just right.