You probably know that you can add a row to the end of a table by pressing Tab in the last column. Doing so generates a new blank row at the bottom of the table for you to fill in. This method is probably the one that’s most familiar to you.
Once a table is complete, you may find that you need to insert new rows between existing rows. Doing so is relatively easy:
- Click anywhere inside a row above or below where you want to insert the new row.
- On the contextual Layout tab, click Insert Above or Insert Below, accordingly, in the Rows & Columns group.
Word will insert a new row! You could also right-click and choose Insert, and then select the appropriate insert command.
What you might not know is that you can add multiple rows just as easily! The trick is to select the appropriate number of existing rows before inserting. To illustrate, we’ll add three new rows above 5 in the table below:
- Select the representative rows for 5, 6, and 7. You select three rows, because you want to insert three rows. If you wanted to insert four rows, you’d select four rows, and so on.
- Click the contextual Layout tab, if necessary.
- Click Insert Above in the Rows & Columns group. As you can see, Word adds three new rows with just one insert action!
If you’re familiar with Excel, you may already know this trick, without realizing it. You can use the same process to insert multiple rows into an Excel sheet. You can also use this same technique to insert multiple columns.
