How to Split a Table in Microsoft Word

Tables in Microsoft Word provide structured grids for organising financial balances, project schedules, and tabular specifications. However, as documents evolve, you often need to divide a single lengthy table into two distinct independent tables—either to insert explanatory narrative paragraphs in between sections or to isolate different departmental divisions onto separate pages.

Rather than manually creating a new empty table, copying cells, and deleting surplus rows, Microsoft Word includes a dedicated native “Split Table” feature that severs any table instantly at your designated cursor position.

Understanding How Table Splitting Operates

When you trigger the split command, Word automatically divides the grid immediately above your active cursor position:

• Upper Segment: Retains all rows above the cursor line, preserving the original table’s width, borders, and column alignments.
• Intervening Paragraph: Word inserts a standard blank paragraph mark (^p) between the two separated blocks, allowing you to type text, insert section headings, or configure custom spacing.
• Lower Segment: Becomes an autonomous new table starting precisely from the row where your cursor was placed. It retains all styling and cell formatting from the parent structure.

Method 1: Splitting a Table Using the Ribbon Tool

To divide a table using Word’s contextual menu interface:

1. Click inside any cell in the row that you wish to become the first row of the new lower table.
2. Notice the contextual Table Design and Layout tabs that appear on the far right of the Word ribbon.
3. Click the Layout tab (ensure you click the Table Layout tab, not the main document Layout tab).
4. Locate the Merge group in the ribbon.
5. Click the Split Table button.

Word instantly divides the grid, creating an independent lower table and placing an empty paragraph line directly between both sections.

Method 2: Splitting a Table Using the Keyboard Shortcut

For rapid editing without reaching for the mouse, Word provides a dedicated global shortcut to split tables:

1. Place your insertion cursor inside any cell of the row where the division should occur.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter simultaneously on your keyboard.

The table immediately separates at the cursor row, inserting a clean paragraph return between the two resulting tables.

Re-joining Separated Tables Together

If you split a table accidentally or decide later that the data should remain consolidated into a single unified block, re-joining them is straightforward:

1. Highlight and delete any intervening text or paragraph returns situated between the two tables.
2. To ensure no hidden formatting codes remain, switch to the Home tab and click the Show/Hide (¶) button in the Paragraph group.
3. Select the paragraph symbol separating the two tables and press Delete on your keyboard.

As soon as the intervening whitespace mark is eliminated, Word seamlessly pulls the lower table up and merges it back into the upper table as a contiguous unit.

Configuring Header Rows on the New Split Table

When a table is split into two, the new lower table does not automatically replicate the column titles from the top table. If you want the new lower table to display its own column headers, click inside its first row, right-click, choose Insert > Insert Rows Above, and enter your relevant column titles.