Word Tips 3 – Tables in Suitability Reports

Ed Evans

Tables are a very effective way of displaying certain information and can help make your suitability reports more reader friendly and engaging.  Genovo’s suitability report builder prompts the user to provide various information such as client details, plan charges and investment performance information (amongst others). Once inputted, Genovo will consolidate this information within a table and automatically style it within Word to reflect the options selected in your Report Theme.

From time-to-time you may wish to add additional tables to your reports to display bespoke information that’s not covered in the Genovo wizards, or you may need to edit a standard Genovo table e.g. you may wish to add another row or column. Here’s a couple of hints and tips on using Word which will help you on your way.

Creating tables

1. Use your mouse to move your cursor to where you want to include the table in your report.

2. Click on the Insert tab in the tool bar at the top of the screen.

3. Click on the Table icon and either use your mouse to select how many columns and rows you require or select Insert Table and select how many columns and rows you wish to include manually.

Adding columns to tables

1. Point your mouse at the very top of the column just above the table, to the left or right of where you want to insert the new column (a downward arrow should appear).

2. Left-click your mouse once the arrow appears and the entire column should be highlighted.

3. Right-click your mouse in the highlighted area, select Insert then select Insert Columns to the Left or Insert Columns to the Right.

You can insert a row or rows in the same way by highlighting the row above or below where you wish it to be inserted, then right-click and select either Insert Rows Above or Insert Rows Below.

Adding shading to tables

Using shading is a great way to improve readability and to highlight related information in a table. For example you might want to group together funds that are in specific sectors in your investment strategy table. Here’s how you can add shading to a specific row or rows.

1. Highlight the row you wish to shade and left-click (hold down the left button of you mouse and drag downwards if you want to shade more than one row)

2. Click the shading icon () in the Paragraph section of the tool bar at the top of the screen) and select your desired shading from the Theme or Standard colours.

Changing a tables style

Genovo allows you to create report themes that allow you to control how tables are styled in your reports i.e. the table shading and the colour of the lines. Word also has a number of table themes, so if you want to change the style of a table once your suitability report has been downloaded to Word, here’s how you  can do it.

1. Highlight your entire table by pointing the mouse at the top left hand corner of the table and left-click on the cross symbol that should appear.

2. Click on the Design Tab in the tool bar at the top of the screen

3. Select your preferred table style from the Table Styles section (note that there is a drop-down with button with even more styles).

Hope that helps – more tips coming soon. Make sure you don’t miss our blogs – subscribe and get email alerts when we update our blog.

Image courtesy of bplanet / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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