Mac Word 2011 Formatting Tables | Page 1 of 9
How to Format Tables in the American University
Thesis and Dissertation Template
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Pasting Tables into the Template (3 Steps)
Creating and Formatting a Table from Scratch (12 Steps)
Formatting Table Notes
Pasting Tables into the Template (3 Steps)
STEP 1. If you already have tables made in Excel or another Word document, you can highlight them, copy them,
and paste them into your thesis or dissertation template. After pasting, you will see a little clipboard appear at
the bottom right of the pasted material. Open the menu and experiment with the different options to see which
gives you the best results. You may still have to do some formatting afterwards. Make sure you consult your
discipline’s preferred style guide for details on border lines, spacing, data alignment, capitalization, and so forth.
If you are pasting from Excel and want to paste your table as an image, you should turn off the gridlines first in
Excel (go to View and uncheck the box that says “Gridlines”). Pasting as an image is sometimes helpful for large
appendix tables, assuming your formatting is clean in the original document.
STEP 2. After you get as close as you can with the formatting, check to make sure your table is within the
allowable margin area by turning on the page gridlines (go to the Layout Tab, then check the box that says
Gridlines toward the right of the screen. If the box is not visible, click Grid Options within the Layout tab
(towards the right) and then check the box to Display Gridlines on Screen.
STEP 3. Check your discipline’s preferred style guide (Turabian, APA, etc.) and format as necessary.