LibreOffice 3.6 Writer Guide - The Document Foundation Wiki

Figure 280: Nested table example
Using AutoCorrect to create a table
You can also create a table by typing a series of hyphens (-) or tabs separated by plus signs. Use
the plus signs to indicate column dividers, while hyphens and tabs are used to indicate the width of
a column.
For example, this character sequence:
+-----------------+---------------+------+
creates a table like this:
Note
Caution
This function can be disabled or enabled in Tools > AutoCorrect Options. On the
Options tab, deselect or select Create table.
When using tabs instead of a table to line up your data, always make sure that you
know how wide they are set and remember that default tabs may be different when
the document is displayed on a different computer or even when copying the same
data in a new document.
Create a table from formatted text
You can create a table from plain text by using the Table > Convert > Text to Table menu item.
The text to be converted must contain characters to indicate column separators. Paragraph marks
indicate an end of a table row.
To convert text to a table, start by editing the text to ensure the column separator character is in
place where you want it. Select the text you want to convert and choose Table > Convert > Text
to Table to open the dialog box shown in Figure 281.
Figure 281: Dialog box to configure the text to table conversion
270 LibreOffice 3.6 Writer Guide