Where's the Convert Table To Text command in Word 2007 and 2010

A Word table is a great tool for organizing related data. They’re easy to create, format, and manipulate. My favorite method is to convert existing text to a table, as follows (in Word 2003):

1. Select the text.
2. Choose Convert from the Table command.
3. Select Text To Table.

Converting a table to text is just as easy:

1. Select the table.
2. Select Convert from the Table command.
3. Select Table To Text.

This arrangement of providing both commands on the Table menu makes good sense to me. Unfortunately, you won’t find the two commands together in 2007 and 2010. The Text To Table is where you might expect, on the Table dropdown–but notice that there’s no Table To Text command.

James Barash recently exposed the elusive command’s hiding place for me (although Jody Gilbert wrote about it as well in 10 Things I Can Never Find In Word 2007). The table to text conversion command is on the context Layout tab. This tab is available only when a table is selected. You’ll find the Convert To Text command in the Data group. The new placement makes sense in an after-the-fact way but frankly, I think it’s going to confuse people. I know it confused me!