I think Charles is on the right track in answering your question when he says tables "do not have to have borders."

I would put it slightly differently: by default, the borders in Word tables are visible. But borders can be made invisible. The table, the cells, and everything the cells contain are there; but you cannot see the borders because they have been "painted" the same colour as the page, i.e., usually white:

Here's a 2 x 4 table reproduced twice: the top table has black borders, the bottom table has white borders.

There's a setting in Word -- I don't remember on which menu it appeared in the 97 version -- that makes table borders visible, regardless of their colour. The feature is called "gridlines" (if I recall right!)

Attached Files

Row 1 Column 1.docx (17.3 KB, 4 views)