# Is there a way to convert a table from MS Word into an Excel spreadsheet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530 "2022-07-25T15:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/1 "2022-07-25T15:42:59Z")
I’ve got a table in Word that is a mixture of text and numbers. I thought the numbers would be stable, but I’m now having to update and change them, including totals. I’d prefer to convert rather than retyping it all, if that’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/2 "2022-07-25T15:49:01Z")
Word table to Excel should copy and paste without issue. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/3 "2022-07-25T16:10:13Z")
Thanks! That worked. Supplemental question: is there a way to add spaces before and after the text, within the cell? They’re mainly defaulting to single line space, which is very cramped. But some are having spaces within the cell, when the text is wrapping into 2 or 3 lines within the cell. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/4 "2022-07-25T16:16:20Z")
I’m not sure what you are asking but, if you need more space in a cell, you can go to the top of the column in which the cell is located, hold your mouse pointer over the dividing line, hold down the left mouse button, and drag it to the right and widen it as much as you like. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/5 "2022-07-25T16:22:48Z")
Sorry, I don’t use Excel very much so not good at explaining, but I appreciate comments! I’ll try and do a visual. Here’s what it looks like Short item 1 Short item 2 Much longer item 3 that wraps to a second line in the cell with a space Short item 4 Short item 5 What I’d like it to look like is: Short item 1 Short item 2 Much longer item 3 that wraps to a second line in the cell without space Short item 4 Short item 5 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/6 "2022-07-25T16:23:24Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > is there a way to add spaces before and after the text, within the cell? - right-click on a group of cells - select **Format Cells** - go to **Alignment** tab - go to **Indent** control - set value to 1 ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/7 "2022-07-25T16:30:07Z")
And if you’re talking about vertical spacing, select a row (or multiple rows) and drag the line between row numbers down to increase the row size. You can also adjust the row height from the toolbar - on the Home bar in the Cells group, select Format | Cell Size | Row Height. If you want to center the text within the row, [there is a button on the home tab for vertical alignment.](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/align-text-in-a-cell-b2489a1f-6c89-45b7-9562-bbc287aa71ea) Click the one to middle-align the text. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/8 "2022-07-25T16:42:29Z")
Thanks for the comments, everyone; appreciated. It looks like the hanging indents I used in the Word table are screwing up some entries but not others in Excel. The data all came through. Looks like I may need to use the format / row height button and the alignment option to make them all look consistent. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/9 "2022-07-25T17:17:55Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > It looks like the hanging indents I used in the Word table are screwing up some entries but not others in Excel. The data all came through. Looks like I may need to use the format / row height button and the alignment option to make them all look consistent. If you don’t have a whole lot of entries, you could manually edit each cell in the spreadsheet to get rid of troublesome formatting. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-convert-a-table-from-ms-word-into-an-excel-spreadsheet/968530/10 "2022-07-26T04:16:23Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > If you don’t have a whole lot of entries, you could manually edit each cell in the spreadsheet to get rid of troublesome formatting. That’s what I did. Most of the entries were just one line, so didn’t need special formatting. It was the ones that wrapped around onto a second line that needed more space. Thanks to everyone for their comments. I’m happy with the result.