How can I add a paragraph directly after Word table?

microsoft-word microsoft-word-2013 text-formatting

110,277

Solution 1

One solution would be to select the table, Cut it, insert all or some of "New text line 1" (or a single Enter), then Paste it back in after "Text".

Solution 2

Had the same issue with a document that had a lot of tables immediately before the next heading. Adding text in-between became a headache. Wanted to avoid copying tables, because pasting them feels like gambling with formats and alignments.

Quickest hack I found was:

Add a new last row (simple Enter at the end of the table)
Add a column break before that new row (Ctrl+Shift+Enter at the beginning of the new last row you just created).
Delete the new row, now isolated from the table

The column break will insert an empty paragraph between the main table and last row. Too bad there's not (IDK) a simple way to delete the isolated last row with a quick key combination.

Solution 3

Here's a simple solution

Add a new row to the table
Select the row (by clicking on the left side of the page or drag through the whole row)
In Table Tools > Layout click on Convert To Text then OK

Now a normal paragraph will be inserted and the heading won't be affected. You can also choose "Paragraph marks" so that multiple lines of text are inserted

On MS Word for Mac it's like this

Solution 4

Generate a paragraph before the table.
Select the whole table. Cut (Ctrl+X).
Go to the previous paragraph. Paste (Ctrl+V).
Now you will have a paragraph after the table. You can write in it.
Update fields to see that you are done.

View more solutions

110,277

Geoff

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Geoff over 1 year

If I have a document with a table in it, how do I add a new paragraph directly after the table?
For example:

Note the cross reference (which is a hyperlink) back to Heading 1b.

The only way I've found to add a new paragraph after the table (but before Heading 1b) is to put the cursor at the start of Heading 1b, and press Enter. This adds a new paragraph with style Heading 1, which I can fix by changing it to Normal - but this messes up the hyperlinks later in the document.

For my above example, doing this results in:

Clicking on the bottom hyperlink puts the cursor here:

... and updating the cross-reference (with F9) results in:
- Rodolfo Oviedo over 5 years
  
  Sorry, in my previous answer I had forgot to update fields. I posted another solution that I checked properly. If it work better than the others, please accept it so that people can see it first and not last.
Geoff over 5 years

Thanks Rodolfo - this is essentially the same as the accepted answer, except that it leaves two copies of the table in place. But otherwise still a decent solution.
Rodolfo Oviedo over 5 years

@Geoff Thanks for the feedback. The accepted question was not clear to me. Now my answer does not leave to copies: just replace Copy by Cut.
Geoff over 5 years

makes sense. This essentially makes this the same solution as the accepted answer. I'd be interested in seeing other solutions that don't involve the cut/paste route, which I suspect could have other problems for hyperlinks.
Geoff about 5 years

I might be misunderstanding, but I don't think this addresses the issue at all. Which of the 7 paragraph symbols are you referring to?
joecap5 about 5 years

Thought he was having an issue having the line right after the table without a space between them. Had that issue. That's how I found this question. Guess my solution is not what he is getting at but it is a very useful solution for getting a line right below a table.
Geoff about 5 years

Like i said, I might have misunderstood; my issue was that it is hard to create a new line between a table and a heading without messing up the reference hyperlinks back to that heading. Is this what you are addressing? You say "select the invisible character causing a new line" but you don't say which one? There are quite a few.
joecap5 about 5 years

I see. I've had that issue too. I think what I proposed could help that too. If you put a new line in after the table, I think there are two hidden characters. One is like a circle with lines coming out if it and the other is a paragraph symbol. I believe you need to hide both of them. Your new text lines should act like separate entities. Maybe you need another line between your text and heading 1b and hide that new line character as well. There is also options for cross reference links to display just the heading type, number, and/or associated text. That may help as well.
Geoff almost 5 years

Good trick! This also works well, and is a bit cleaner than the original solution.
Luke Sawczak over 4 years

Excellent solution, especially since that new row is selected by default if you use the 'insert below' button. This is short only of Microsoft adding a one-stroke solution in an update.
Luke Sawczak over 4 years

Here's a macro for this solution. You have to have the cursor at the end of the last row in the table.
Noumenon almost 3 years

This option isn't available in Outlook 365 for Mac in 2021, for those composing there.
phuclv almost 3 years

@Noumenon who said that? i.stack.imgur.com/evsgM.jpg i.stack.imgur.com/G6ntc.jpg
Noumenon almost 3 years

All right, I'm not sure why my Outlook doesn't have that. Sorry for the misinformation.
phuclv almost 3 years

@Noumenon maybe the width of the window is too narrow. You need to resize it to make it appear