Point Missed

Let me be blunt. Using Microsoft Word for as many years as I have, I approach articles like this one differently than other less experienced Microsoft Word users. I fully embrace my geeky tendency to mount a soapbox when discussing Microsoft Word. The word "rubbish" comes to mind when I think about how the author of the article implies that manually formatting a table in order to achieve the layout you want is the correct way to go.

It's not.

Duh.

Here's where the author gets off-track:

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NOTE: If you know that you are going to need to expand the margins the same way in other cells of the main table as well, you can select multiple cells in the table.

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What could the author have instructed the reader to do instead?

Use a style. Styles STyles STYles STYLes STYLEs STYLES!!!

That is the foundation upon which any Microsoft Word document that is going to be used by a professional - and by that I don't mean to imply "professional technical writer" or "professional writer" in any capacity. I mean professional as in you are being paid to do the work. If you're doing work in Microsoft Word and you're not being paid, you have no obligation to use styles. Use Normal style and manually format it - I really don't care. My position is simple: if you're being paid and you're using Microsoft Word for the output you are being paid to create, use styles. It's very simple. There are so many ways to define a style and then apply it within Microsoft Word - it simply takes some forethought and planning.