SmartTable Cell Format

A Free Document Productivity Tool for Word

This tool formats a table cell by adding punctuation and removing empty paragraphs at the end of the cell.  It operates on selected cells or the current cell if no range is selected.

It adds a "." character to paragraphs that do not already end in a punctuation mark. 

It does not add the "." character in the following situations:

• not added if there is already a punctuation mark present;
• not added if the paragraph is in bold  - it assumes this is a heading;
• not added to the text in the heading row
• not added to text in the renumbering column;  and
• not added to the "and" or "or" text in a bullet list like this one.

This tool also removes paragraphs at the end of the cell.  These can be hard to spot and cause strange row spacings.

The rules above make using this tool on the entire table a reasonable option.

Shortcut Key Assignment

The shortcut key is:

• dpSmartTableCellFormat: Control +.  (the "." character)

Inspiration

Tables are an efficient  way of capturing lots of information quickly.  The structure of the table provides the context, and tables encourage conciseness, especially through the use of bullet points. 

I find that when I record notes, action points and ideas in cells, I often forget to punctuate the cells correctly – this is because I'm thinking more about the content than its layout.  This tool automatically formats the cells with the correct punctuation and quickly prepares the table for publication.

I found I was missing out the "." on the end of bullet points and other paragraphs. 

I also found that I would sometimes create blank paragraphs at the end of the cell – this tool also removes them.

Summary

This tool complements the other SmartTable tools already published

The Downloads tab contains a copy of SmartTable Cell Format. There is more information on how it works in the release notes.