How do you apply the table style of a table to another?

Question

I have a publisher's sample Word document containing a table in a particular style. I have an existing table in my document that is in the standard plain Word format. I'm trying to apply the publisher's table format, which is not a Word built-in style, to mine.

However, when I
1. click on the squared cross icon on the top left of the publisher's table (to select the text of all the rows of the table - see below):
2. click on format painter
3. highlight all rows of my (target) table
it just adjusts the font of the cell entries of my table, not the style of the table itself.

How do you apply the table style of a table to another?

Solution 1

If the original document did not use a custom style to create the table, it appears you will need to create one from scratch or modify an existing style to match. I have not been able to find a way to save an existing table as a new style. You can save a table style to be used on new tables by creating a Quick Table entry (for more info, see answer here: Word 2013 - How to create a new table style from an existing table style?). This however cannot be used on existing tables.

If the publisher's original document had a custom table style created and you copy the table into your document, that style should now show up in the Table Tools > Design > Table Styles section of your new document (when the table is selected). For example:

I created a table with a custom style in document 1:

When I create a new document 2, it has the default Word styles:

Now if I copy the table with that style from document 1 into document 2, the custom style from document 1 now appears in the Table Styles section of document 2 as well, allowing me to apply that style to all subsequent tables:

Solution 2

The easiest way is to:

• Duplicate the whole original table (your publisher table).
• Empty its cells.
• Put as many rows as your new table requires (add one + several Ctrl+Y).
• Copy/paste the cells from your existing table to the duplicated table (before pasting select all the cells of the duplicated table).