Discussion on:

Insert a line above a Word table at the top of the page

When I try this it only highlights the first cell so hitting enter just deletes the data in that cell. I am using Word 2007 if that makes a difference

You're right. If the whole cell is selected (highlighted), you will delete the contents by pressing ENTER. The whole cell is selected when your mouse pointer appears as an arrow when you click. I often end up with the entire cell selected when I am trying to simply click in to edit it.

When this happens, simply click again until the selection goes away and you see the insertion point at the beginning of the cell; if need be, use the keyboard to move the insertion point to the beginning of the cell.

First, I have no idea why your suggestion only works for some. Maybe: Word versions, OS's, settings. No idea, but it doesn't.

WORKS FOR SURE:
1. Highlight the entire table - maybe start with mouse a line above and drag to mark a line below (other things work but this is universal too)
2. Edit/Cut the table (crtl X)
3. Table is gone.
4. Add some blank lines
5. Edit/Paste
6. Table is back with some lines above it.
7. Use as normal.

comment: TechREpublic shouldn't be so greedy in getting so much info from me in order to post a comment. Maybe you lose 8 out of 10 who would otherwise reply? You need a great reason to waste peoples time. Sharing info has a lot of faces.

This only seems to work if the table is at the top of the page. If there is anything in the cell you need to see the "I" insertion cursor before you click Enter. If there is already an paragraph mark above the table, I got a line insertion within the cell. If the table was the first thing on the page, I got a new line above the table. I'm using Word 2003.

Ctrl+Home, Enter

edited after the last site upgrade decided that anything inside the $lt; and $gt; was html code and should be blanked.

I found that this added a page + a line in Word 2003, the other methods used worked fine.

There should have been a space or a LF between and .

Thus:

Ctrl+Home Enter

- or -

Ctrl+Home
Enter

edited: see my post above

Just hover over where you get the 4 arrow symbol (don't click) then press enter.

Worked for me - Thanks

didn't work for me either Word 97

Word 2007. Thanks for the tip. I can't believe how easy the solution is.

Works as described

Press Ctrl+Home (twice if you like!), then press Enter.

Works every time, ever since Word 6.

edit: spell

You can do the same thing with any table in a document (either at top of page or within the document) by clicking on "Split Table" in the Table menu.

As the article states, the table needs to be at the beginning of the first line of the first page for Enter alone to work.

But, Ctrl-Shift-Enter works with a table anywhere in the document. And the cursor can be anywhere in the top row.

You can also split a table by putting the cursor anywhere in any row. Hit Ctrl-Shift-Enter to get a paragraph return separating the rows above the cursor row from the row with the cursor and those below. Quicker than using the Ribbon - Table Tools, Layout tab, Split Table in Merge group.

This works in Word 2007 with tables set up in Word or with data copied in from Excel. Not sure if it will work in other versions of Word.

Ctrl Shift Enter is the most reliable way to create a blank line above a table. This is also the Table Break shortcut, ie click at the top of the left hand cell immediately below where you want your table to break and hit Ctrl Shift Enter. To reassemble the table press Delete in the blank space.

If you select the table, then right-click, one of your options is to insert a caption and it defaults to "Above selected item".

Alos, pressing Ctrl+Home places you above the table and then pressing Enter creates the line above the table.

I spent hours looking for a solution to this *expletive* problem.... even Microsoft has it wrong on their page.
Here is what worked for me:

Place your cursor in the left-hand top box of the table, in front of any text, hold CTRL and press ENTER.

This won't work on tables with repeating table headers.

Wow! How easy. Putting the cursor before the text and hitting "Enter" is all it took. THANK YOU!