Moving columns in WORD 97

[climber2]

I am trying to move a column of text in Word.
This is a huge document - 187 pages.
The columns are not in a table. The columns are separated by tab spaces.
I am trying to move, say, just the second column to the right by one tab space - and leave the extreme left-hand entry where it is.
I cannot seem to do this; every way I try, the left-hand entry moves with the column I'm trying to move.
(For instance by ALT-click & drag and blocking the column I want to move)

I can do this successfully one line at a time, but this is a huge document - 187 pages; I have to be able to block & move somehow..
Is there any way to do this ?
[sig][/sig]

 

[Crazza]

I have a couple of ideas that you might want to have a go at though I suspect that the sheer size of your document is going to cause a few problems.

Try hightlighting the text and then using the Table --> Convert Text to Table option. I think that there is an upper limit on the number of rows that it can convert but you could maybe do it in chunks. Once converted you could just select then drag and drop the desired column. Once you've done that use the Table --> Convert... option to change it back to text.

The other alternative is to copy a big chunk of text and paste it into Excel. When it pastes into a spreadsheet, it uses the tab marks to separate the text by column. From there you can use cut & paste to move the column of text then just cut & paste it back into Word. You will need to use the Table --> Covert option again though to change it back to a tabbed text format.

Unless you have a powerful computer either of these options could take a while to run and I'd suggest that you attempt this after you've made a backup of your file, in case anything nasty happens.

Hope this helps

Craig Shepherd [sig][/sig]