How do I make a table wrap within a page?

[HughMungus]

I am trying to display an entire table on one page but I’m having some trouble with it. The table itself is rather narrow, just two columns and about 40 rows, and is less than 2 inches wide. If I make the font small enough for the whole table to fit on the page as a single pair of columns, I have to use a 6pt font and then it’s too small to read. I really need the table to fit on one side of one page.

The obvious solution is to make the table “wrap” or “flow” - I’m not sure the best word to use - so that the first 20 or so rows are on the left side of the page, then the remaining rows appear farther to the right side of the page. (The second batch of rows do NOT need to be against the right side of the page; simply having a reasonable gap between the two parts of the table would be sufficient.)

I’m at a loss to see how I can make my table flow so that the first half of the rows are on the left and then the remaining rows are further right. Is this possible? If so, how can I do it? If it is NOT possible, would it be possible for me to have two entirely different tables (one containing the first half of the rows and one containing the second half) appear side by side on the same page? If so, how do I do that?

I feel as if I should be able to do what I’m asking via Table Properties/Text Flow but I’ve tried all the combinations that made sense and none of them made the slightest bit of difference so I’m obviously missing something.

I’m using Libre Office 5.3.3.2 on Windows 10.

[LKeithJordan]

First, I know of no word processor such as LO Writer or M$ Word that can display tabular information by flowing from one side of the page to the other as you seem to desire. However, let’s use our imagination for a moment.

FIRST - Why not make a 5-column table with 20 rows and manually control the placement of the information? You would use column 3 as a divider to adjust the width of separation of the “bottom” 20 rows from the “top” 20. By making column 3 relatively narrow, you could even use left and right borders to enhance the visual separation if you desired. Use merge cells to create a table header across all columns. To me, this is probably the simplest approach.

SECOND - Instead of a table, you might try using column sections across the page to separate individual columns and arranging your text accordingly. I believe this solution would apply best if the columnar, and not the tabular, feature of the presentation is the focus (such as with newspapers and magazines).

THIRD - (A tabular approach with a twist.) You might try setting up a LO Calc spreadsheet in the way you desire, then inserting the spreadsheet into the LO Writer document as an OLE object (link or embed).

Please click the checkmark beside the response you believe best answers your question.

[HughMungus]

I’d thought of your first solution but was hoping there was something more elegant. Using columns was the elegant solution I wanted

[Regina]

You can set the page width half of the paper sheet width. For printing you use the “Page Layout” tab of the printing dialog and set 2 pages per sheet of paper with horizontal arrangement. On the tab “Options” you check “Use only paper size from printer preferences” and set portrait orientation on the printer settings.

This is a solution for Calc, where you do not have the possibility to divide the page into columns like in Writer.

[LKeithJordan]

Regina, your solution is interesting – but I have a question. If there is more to the document than one table, wouldn’t your solution require additional effort to print everything but the table, then change the settings and print the table, and then assemble the documents? Am I missing something?

[HughMungus]

I’m using Writer, not Calc, so that didn’t help me.

[mikekaganski]

Please use multi-column page layout.

1. Format-Columns and setup the required columns count and widths (including spacing).
2. Put your table to the page. It will flow from first column to the next as required.

If you use “Repeat heading” table feature, it will even repeat it on each column.

[HughMungus]

I don’t have enough points to upvote this but this totally solved my problem! Thank you VERY much!