Writer Designer's Update 2018: What's Changed with Tables

Hey there, Writers! =]

As a part of the Writer Designer's Update 2018, here's everything new and improved with Tables in Writer:

1. Changing columns to rows (Transposing a Table)

One of the most widely used features in spreadsheets—Transpose Cells—is now available in Writer. Imagine you have columns in a table that's cramped for space, and doesn't fit on the page very well. With the Transpose Table option, you can now flip columns into rows, helping you optimize the margins better.

To do this, right-click anywhere on the table, and choose More Options > Transpose Table .

2. Text to Table

Generate a new table from existing text in your document. All you have to do is select a block of text, go to Tools on the left panel ( ☰ ), and click on Convert Text to Table .

Choose a separator character to tell Writer where to divide the text into rows and columns ( hyphen in the above example ).

3. Table to Text

Similarly, it's now easier to extract data from a table and present it as normal text in your document. To do this, right-click anywhere on the table, and choose More Options > Convert Table to Text .

4. New visual cues for table operations

We've made it easier to play around with tables. Use the new visual cues to select cells, to choose a theme color for your table, to rearrange the rows and columns or even move a table altogether.

6. Splitting tables

Thanks to everyone who wrote to us asking to add this feature. You can now split a table into multiple tables from any selected point.

To do this, right-click at the position from where you want the table to be split, and choose More Options > Split Table .

That's all for now. Do check out the Writer Designer's Update blog for everything else we're announcing along with this update.

Happy writing!