6 time-saving tips for working with tables in Zoho Writer

Tables have always been the best way to represent data. They help you structure and categorize information systematically and present them in a simpler way. While tables in Zoho Writer are easy to implement, some tasks might not be that obvious. 

Here are some time-saving tips to help you work better with tables in Zoho Writer: 

 

1. Insert Multiple Rows / Columns in a Table

Adding more rows and columns is the most common action performed while working with tables. Instead of using the Table tab, you can quickly add rows and columns using one of the following options: 

Option 1:

Keep your cursor in the last cell of your table, and click the Tab key to insert a blank row. Then keep pressing  Cmd+Y in Mac and Ctrl+Y in Windows till you get the required number of rows / columns.

Option 2:

You can also follow these steps and add multiple rows and columns at once:

1. Select the required number of rows / columns in your table.
2. Right-click, go to Table Operations and click Insert Row / Columns.

2. Auto Fit Table Content within Page Margins

Sometimes table content can render beyond the page margin. In such cases, you can fit the content within the page margin by right-clicking and selecting ' Autofit to Window' option. Once you set the required size for the columns, the content will automatically adjust, even when you change the page margin or orientation.

3. Distribute Columns Evenly

The ' Distribute Columns Evenly' option is another timesaver as it helps you arrange the columns in the exact same width without changing the width of individual columns. Right click on the table and select the option to automatically adjust all the columns in the table to an equal width. 

4. Select a Whole Column with Ease

You can select a complete column with ease by just hovering your mouse over the top border of the first cell to view a down arrow which allows you to select the entire column at once.

 

5. Move an Entire Row Up or Down

To move an entire row up or down, just put your cursor anywhere in the cell of a row that you want to move and press and hold the Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down in Mac and Alt+Shift+Up/Down in Windows.

6. Convert Text to Table

Tab-separated or comma-separated values are simple text format for creating data in a  tabular  form . 

Zoho  Writer allows you to quickly create tables when you enter data in such a format. You can easily convert such texts into table by following these steps

1. Create the content with separators such as Tab or Comma, to indicate where you want to divide the text into columns. For example:
   
   ID,Name,Department,DOJ
   493,Robin,HR,09.07.99
   464,Maria,HelpDesk,03.02.12 
   
   
2. Select the text that you want to convert to a table.
3. In Tools tab, click Convert Text to table. It will convert the select text into a tabular form.
   
   

Hope these tips will help you work faster with tables. Try them out today and let us know your feedback.

• Topic Participants

• Costanzo Cotoia

• Joseph Sam

• Sakthi Kirubakaran

  

• Jordan Talmor

• Sticky Posts

• 8 Neat Tricks in Writer You Should Know About

  Want to get the most out of Writer and speed up your work? You've come to the right place. We've compiled some productive shortcuts in Writer that can help you get work done more quickly: 1. Look up synonyms   No more need for a bulky thesaurus! Use Writer's synonym suggestions to explore different word choices, and find the one that fits your style and tone the best. All you have to do is right-click on a word, and select Synonyms from the dropdown list.  2. Insert images, tables and more   Typing

• Tip #26: Filter your records before merging a document

  Tom is an HR executive who has to send onboarding emails every month to newly joined employees. He has a master spreadsheet with all the employee details, and new employees are added to them as they join. It's the month of March and Tom has to send onboarding emails to employees who've joined this month. But, how is Tom going to go through a big spreadsheet with multiple new and past information, and send onboarding emails to the set of newly joined employees?     Simple, by filtering and merging

• Tip: #11 Collaboratively fill documents with your colleagues and clients

  Last week we talked about how Fillable Fields can help you create contracts and proposal templates you can repurpose across your processes. This week, we'll talk in detail about how to collaboratively fill those templates with your clients and team.    Say you've entered into a contract with multiple clients but the final contract amount is still under negotiation. Using fillable fields, partners can quote their contract fee directly in the template document without affecting other areas of the document. You

• Tip #07: Five best defaults in Writer you can change to complement the way you work

  Find yourself adjusting settings to the way you like every time you create a new document? Try tweaking the default settings instead.  From font styles to auto correct options and more, here are the five best defaults settings you can control.   1. Default font style   Use your favorite typography across all your documents. You can customize a font style by adding a color, adjusting its size and more, and then set it as default.    To do this, go to More Options > Format > Font. Choose a font style

• Tip #06: Make the best use of Zia in Writer

  About to share your work with your team? Looking to get a second opinion quickly before that? Let Zia do it.    Zia, Zoho's AI-powered intelligent assistant is now part of Writer. She's trained to check and polish your work. She doesn't just read, she understands. So apart from grammar and spelling checks, she'll let you know when you've used a wrong adjective, or have missed out words based on the context of your piece.   Every time you write, Zia makes a scorecard after carefully assessing your

• Recent Topics

• Knowledgebase SEO

  We have a custom-domain mapped help center that is not restricted via login. I have some questions: a) will a robots.txt file still allow us to control indexing? b) do we have the ability to edit the sitemap? c) do category URLs get indexed by search

• RouteIQ for Zoho FSM

  Beste, Zou wel top zijn dat we een RouteIQ hebben voor FSM aangezien we constant moeten zien wat de beste route is voor onze monteurs. Nu moeten we een speciale aparte programma hebben om de beste route te berrekenen voor onze monteurs aangezien de planning

• Export Tickets from the Help Center

  Hello everyone! We are now allowing end users to export tickets directly from the help center. The ticket export allows users to: Filter tickets by Department, Priority, and Account before exporting. Download files from Export History (Setup > Data administration

• CRM x WorkDrive: We're rolling out the WorkDrive-powered file storage experience for existing users

  Release plan: Gradual rollout to customers without file storage add-ons, in this order: 1. Standalone CRM 2. CRM Plus and Zoho One DCs: All | Editions: All Available now for: - Standalone CRM accounts in Free and Standard editions without file storage

• Zoho Books Sandbox environment

  Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a

• Super Admin Logging in as another User

  How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

• Is it possible to remove filtering options?

  My CRM has a lot of custom fields that should not be used in filters or views. Fields that are automated and exist only to store temporary values that get used in functions. These create a lot of noise in the list of fields to filter. Isn't there any

• Print / Export full Dashboard page

  Hello Zoho team, It is currently only possible to print/export one component of a dashboard at a time. Requesting the option to print/export a full dashboard page with all components to a pdf or picture. Doing through the browser doesn't give good results.

• Function #18: Associate invoice templates automatically based on customer language

  For businesses dealing with a diverse linguistic clientele, it becomes crucial to send out invoices in the customer's preferred language to ensure effective communication. This requirement can be handled in Zoho Books by creating invoice templates in

• Changing field types

  Question im a Zoho CRM user and curious, if I change a flied type from single or multi line text to a URL field type will i lose the data in the field or will it be converted to website link automatically. Thanks

• Quote PDF – Header image stopped rendering suddenly

  Hello Zoho Support Team, We are facing an issue with Quote PDF templates in Zoho Books. Previously, images added inside the Quote header HTML were rendering correctly. However, recently the header image is no longer appearing, while header text still

• Changing Default PDF Name

  Is it possible to change the default name of a PDF? As of right now, all of my quotes are named 'QT_$QuoteNumber' (i,e: 'QT_19803471298374) - would it be possible to change this to: '$CompanyName - $AccountName - $QuoteNumber' for instance?

• Tip 2: Recursive functions in Deluge: How to dynamically run a function for a specified number of times.

  Hi folks, As part of the Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a new tip on Recursive functions.  Let us first quickly understand what Recursive functions are: A function that calls itself one or more times is known as a Recursive function. That is, you can execute a function to perform a particular action a specific number of times. And, at the end of each iteration, a new output is generated. Recursive functions are commonly used by programmers as it enables

• Removing "Products" as mandatory field from Sales Order creation page

  Hello, friends According to our workflow, we should: 1) create Sales Order (Stage "New") 2) call and discuss the Products with a customer (Stage "Communication") 3) add the Products to the Sales Order during the call However, "Products" is mandatory to

• Function #48: Manage fixed installment payments using Zoho Books

  Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! Businesses offer installment payment options to their customers, particularly for expensive purchases, to ease the financial burden on them. By breaking down the total cost into smaller, more manageable

• Function #1: Convert an accepted Estimate to Sales Order automatically in Zoho Books

  As you’re aware, Zoho Books provides a default option to have the estimates automatically converted to invoices once your customer accepts them. Many of you wanted a similar option for sales orders, so here’s a workflow that converts accepted estimates

• Spotlight series #6: The Show app for Android TV has a new look!

  Hello everyone! We are delighted to introduce our revamped and redesigned Show app for Android TV.  Smart TVs are exploding in popularity. Android TV alone has over 110 million active monthly devices. Zoho Show, as part of a constant effort to improve

• Employee Appraisal Applicability - Why is Date of Joining Hard-Coded?

  In the new (to me, at least) Performance Appraisal Cycle wizard, it's possible to set criteria to determine for whom the appraisal process should apply. This makes sense on its face. However, one MUST use the Date of Joining criterion as a filter. Why

• WorkDrive for Excel Add on

  Dear Sir/Madam Have installed Workdrive for Microsoft add on But unable to view the same added in Excel

• Zoho Books integration sync from Zoho CRM does not work

  Hi Zoho Community & Zoho Support We just tried to get a sync some products into Zoho Books from CRM using the native sync and we're getting an error: "It looks like some mandatory fields you're trying to map are empty. Please provide valid field names

• Appraisals - Order of Previous Reviews Should Be Newest to Oldest

  The new Zoho People layout generally does a decent job at providing the necessary information for performing appraisals of employee performance. One example of this is the Previous Reviews section: This information is helpful when conducting a review.

• Referencing a cell from another sheet

  My workbook has multiple sheets. Each sheet has some calcluated totals in certain cells. The front master sheet has a list of everything that is detailed on the other sheets, with the totals. These could change at any time, so the totals need to be references to the other cell's value, not a fixed number. So on the master sheet, I put in =, then go the other sheet and choose the cell and hit Enter. In regular Excel, this works. But in the Zoho sheet, it doesn't work. I have to edit the result by

• auto close automated alert tickets which are similar

  Hello ZOHO Community, we are using ZOHO Desk to process automated monitoring alerts. Scenario: Our monitoring system creates a ticket when a threshold is exceeded, e.g. Subject: Computer 1 – CPU usage 100% – Error A few minutes later, once the issue resolves

• Paging through API results. a major gap in your documentation.

  There is no way for me. to get all of my data through a single API call. Typically REST APis have mechanisms for paging through API results. But the documentation for the API I am using: https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Introduction Has no mention

• Recurring invoices were generated with old template...

  I have recurring invoices setup. Ones generated on 10.20.2025 used the modified template I had used. But for some reason, on the ones created on 11/20/2025, it seems the invoices created reverted to the previous version of the invoice template. Notably,

• How do people handle using Outlook and Zoho Project calendar at the same time?

  We have an ongoing problem in our organisation where we use Zoho Projects to plan all of our projects tasks and that also allows us to look forward using the workload report to see which of our consultants are overstretched etc and which are available.

• Please, make writer into a content creation tool

  I'm tired of relying on Google Docs. I'm actually considering moving to ClickUp, but if Writer were a good content creation tool instead of just a word processor, I would finally be able to move all my development within the Zoho ecosystem, rather than

• How do I associate pricebooks to a customer?

  I setup a few pricebooks, that worked fine. But now the only thing I can do with it, when I enter a quote or sales order, I can select which pricebook to use, but I have to do this product by product every time I add one. Is there a way to connect a pricebook

• Write-Off multiple invoices and tax calculation

  Good evening, I have many invoices which are long overdue and I do not expect them to be paid. I believe I should write them off. I did some tests and I have some questions:  - I cannot find a way to write off several invoices together. How can I do that,

• Leave Report Emailed Weekly

  I am wondering if someone knows how to have a report generated either weekly or monthly or both for department heads and ownership of upcoming employee leave. For instance, it would be nice to get an emailed report on Friday for the upcoming week of who

• Zoho desk desktop application

  does zoho desk has a destop applicaion?

• Tip #54- Exploring the Files Icon in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

  As we’re already in mid-December, it’s a good time to take a closer look at one of the most useful options in the Zoho Assist remote support dashboard—the Files icon. To get started, log in to Zoho Assist using your credentials. Once you’re in, navigate

• Tip#47: Estimation planner

  Sprint planning becomes easier, smoother, more collaborative and more accurate with the Estimation Planner extension. Most work items involve multiple users, and each user's role and effort vary. To provide an unbiased and fair estimation point to the

• Painfully Slow Zoho mail

  Since yesterday Zoho Mail seems to have starting functioning very slowly and having a few bugs. It's slow to open mails, slow to send, slow to change between email accounts. Sometimes clicking on a particular folder (eg Sent folder) stops working and

• Upcoming update to Google Drive integration in Zoho Creator

  Hello everyone, We're writing to inform you about an upcoming update to how Zoho Creator integrates with Google Drive. In Zoho Creator, during actions like importing files to create an app or attaching files to fields, you can choose files directly from

• Time Tracking on Iphone doesn't stop

  When I start a time tracking session the timer starts as expected. However when I hit stop, the timer remains on that project. The only buttons available are discard and start. Start runs the timer more and discard says it will throw away the data from

• Zoho Sign - Zoho CRM extension upgrade

  Hi everyone, We've updated Zoho Sign extension for Zoho CRM with significant internal changes. Impact on existing Zoho Sign extension users Users using the extension without customization If you are using the integration without implementing Zoho Sign's

• Zoho Books blocks invoicing without VeriFactu even though it is not mandatory until 2027

  I would like to highlight a very serious issue in Zoho Books for Spain. 1. The Spanish government has postponed the mandatory start of VeriFactu to January 1st, 2027. This means that during all of 2026 businesses are NOT required to transmit invoices

• Group by Owner/ Owner Kanban /Group by Custom Field

  Hi, We are missing the option of viewing Tasks grouped by their owner, as it is an essential function for us to manage our employees' working tasks. We find it hard to inspect what are the tasks that our employees are working on.  We are seeking an option

• Flow using way too many tasks

  I built a flow that is using way too many tasks for what it is doing. I reached out to support a week ago but never heard back so hoping the community can help. Does a filter count as a task? I am seeing tons of records filtered with < 1 Sec Time Taken

• Next Page