When you work with some imported table contents in InDesign, like from MS Word document, HTML page etc., the text are usually in a tab-delimited format, there are is no need to retype this text into a new table, you can easily convert it into a table, and here is how:
Step 1, create a textframe and import the text into it.
Step 2, click “Type > Show Hidden Characters” to determine how the text is currently separated. Usually, you will see tabs between “columns” of information and paragraph returns between “rows” of information. Also, check to see that all the columns have the same amount of tabs between them; it doesn’t matter if the tabs don’t line up and the text looks messy. All that matters is consistency in the characters used.
Step 3, select the Type tool and highlight the text to convert to a table, and click “Table > Convert Text to Table”.
Step 4, in the Convert Text to Table dialog box, confirm the information selected for the Column Separator and Row Separator. If necessary, you can change the separators by choosing Tab, Comma, or Paragraph from the menus or by entering a different separation character (such as a semicolon) in the fields.
Step 5, if you choose the same separation character for columns and rows, you can clarify how many columns you need by entering a value in the Number of Columns field. Otherwise, this field is unavailable.
Step 6, click OK to create the table. You may need to manually adjust the column widths, and you can add header and footer rows as necessary.
Converting Text to Tables in InDesign CS4
When you work with some imported table contents in InDesign, like from MS Word document, HTML page etc., the text are usually in a tab-delimited format, there are is no need to retype this text into a new table, you can easily convert it into a table, and here is how:
Step 1, create a textframe and import the text into it.
Step 2, click “Type > Show Hidden Characters” to determine how the text is currently separated. Usually, you will see tabs between “columns” of information and paragraph returns between “rows” of information. Also, check to see that all the columns have the same amount of tabs between them; it doesn’t matter if the tabs don’t line up and the text looks messy. All that matters is consistency in the characters used.
Step 3, select the Type tool and highlight the text to convert to a table, and click “Table > Convert Text to Table”.
Step 4, in the Convert Text to Table dialog box, confirm the information selected for the Column Separator and Row Separator. If necessary, you can change the separators by choosing Tab, Comma, or Paragraph from the menus or by entering a different separation character (such as a semicolon) in the fields.
Step 5, if you choose the same separation character for columns and rows, you can clarify how many columns you need by entering a value in the Number of Columns field. Otherwise, this field is unavailable.
Step 6, click OK to create the table. You may need to manually adjust the column widths, and you can add header and footer rows as necessary.
