I have a list with two words each line and words put into table so it is easier to read with the two words per cell. The number of columns would hopefully be limited only by the number of characters that can fit into one line. Can this be done? I have Word 2007.

It's not clear what you're asking. If you'd like to take a list in which each line contains two words and convert it to a table that contains two columns -- one for each word -- then you could easily do this by selecting the entire list, click Insert > Table > Convert Text to Table; in the Separate text at section of the dialog box, add a space in the Other box, and click OK. (Before converting, make sure there are no extra spaces at the end of each line, or Word will create a blank column.)

Or are you asking how to create a table that spans exactly the entire width of a page, but no more or less? If that's the case, then you can right-click on the table and, via Table Properties, set the Preferred width to 100%.

Putting the two words into single cells of a table like the one included.

Attached Files

Business English collocations　converting to table.docx (20.0 KB, 18 views)

Well, what you've got is a simple list, but when you put the list in a table, the structure of the table implies some sort of relationship among the items, e.g., everything in a certain column is related, everything in a row, etc. But there isn't really any relationship beyond the overall group type, e.g., Noun-Noun Collocations, so the reader will be distracted by trying to determine a relationship that doesn't exist.

Furthermore, if you put everything in a table, then the longest word in each collocation will dictate the column width, which will yield lots of wasted space, and you'll get line breaks that will also waste a lot of space, for example:

age
discrimination

What's more, now you have to use borders on the table, which makes things look even busier.

I would emphasize the group types, then put everything in columns, as in the attached file.

If you are still on a mission to put everything in a table, you'll find the list in tabular form at the bottom of the attached file. The way I did it was to do a wildcard search to find four sets of collocations, then replace the paragraph breaks with tabs, then select the groups of collocations and convert to tables.

Wildcard search:

Find: (*)(^13)(*)(^13)(*)(^13)(*)(^13)
Replace: \1^t\3^t\5^t\7^p

But I think your students will be better served by the simpler columnar layout, which you can do yourself in the future by selecting each grouping, then Layout > Columns and choose three columns.

Attached Files

Business English collocations　converting to table - Copy.docx (34.4 KB, 8 views)