Alternatively, you can use the Convert Text to Table dialog box as an intermediary. Select the data to be converted and choose Table?Convert text to table on the Insert tab. This displays the Convert Text to Table dialog box, shown in Figure 9-6.

This method doesn’t produce instant results, but it does let you set the AutoFit behavior ahead of time, as well as choose a different column delimiter if the one Word guesses (usually Tabs) is incorrect.

It’s also a useful diagnostic tool when the quick method illustrated above yields unexpected results, such as more or fewer columns than you expected. When you get the wrong table dimensions, press Ctrl+Z, investigate the data, make any corrections, and try again.

You can get the wrong number of columns if there are too many tabs (sometimes obscured due to formatting issues) or if some rows use spaces instead of tabs to accomplish the table “look.” Figure 9-5 demonstrates the
utility of displaying nonprinting formatting characters, such as tabs.

In this case, the user relied upon built-in tab stops rather than setting a custom tab in the tabbed table. As a result, alignment required two tabs for some of the shorter items (Books, Pens, and Pencils), and only one tab for the rest. The result confuses Word, which assumes there are three columns, rather than two. When this happens, dismiss the dialog box, find and remove the extra tabs, and try again. Don’t worry about setting a properly aligned tab because you’re converting the tabbed data into a table anyway; the table will handle the alignment for you.

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