Create two independent tables side by side in writer?

[appreciatethehelp]

Hello all, just as per the title.
The reason I want to do this is so that I can enter information in each table and have the row lines move independently on either side, I don’t want them to affect one-another.
In essence it will look like one table with two columns and multiple rows, except that all row lines in either column will be able to move without affecting the row lines in the other column; I don’t want them to be “joined” as they would be when using a single table.

I have tried inserting a section with two columns into a writer document, then creating two different single-column tables (one for each section column).
However I run into a problem each time when inserting the section:

A) If I leave the “Evenly distribute contents to all columns” box checked, then when I insert rows into the first section column, they (unsurprisingly) are also added to the second section column, which is not what I want as I want them to operate independently.

B) However if I leave the “evenly distribute contents to all columns” box unchecked, then I am unable to select the second section to create a different table there.

How do I get around this?

Thanks.

[mikekaganski]

Insert a column break to get to the second column.

[appreciatethehelp]

Ah. Thanks.

[ajlittoz]

@mikekaganski gave THE solution in the 2-column section context.

However, think about your problem because a section appears in the normal text flow. If you’re too close to page end, your lines for the first “table” will spill over in the second column (unless you really inserted a table object).

You can do it differently, kind of considering your tables are “annotations”, “comments” or side-text for the main flow. In the paragraph where you want these side tables to appear, insert two frames anchored To paragraph inside which you’ll put your tables or any other fancy text. You can align horizontally one of them to left, the other one to right of paragraph area. As with any frame, you can eventually force the size to some fixed dimension (e.g. for special effect, the first at 1/3, the second at 2/3 page width), define how normal text flows around and set free space around. Each frame is then a sub-document by itself where you can have independent layout rules (e.g. centred, left/right justify).

Of course, result looks best aesthetically if both frames/tables have approximately the same size and there is not too much text in between.

If your tables have too much size discrepancy, the section solution is better.