When I select my tables, I also use the "move symbol". In my years as a trainer, I've come across many different types of users. Some have the "sticky-clicker syndrome" – and if they click and accidentally drag the move symbol it makes the table into an object like a picture and that causes issues, especially in the footer. The method that seems to consistently work for my students is simply to click in the first cell, hold and drag to the last cell. It highlights the entire table and then they can turn off the borders the way you described.
One other trick you could mention is to set the internal margins of the table to be 0" on the left and right. The default is to have it be .08" and that's fine if there are borders, but when there aren't it's not on the margin. (FYI, once you correct it the view may not show it right away, but when you look at the print preview or sometimes switching from Draft View back to Print Layout View, it refreshes the screen.)
From way back to Office 2003 and earlier versions, I learned to NOT put tables in the headerundefinedfooter. It used to cause weird corruption. I think it's improved since version 2007, but I'm still gun-shy about using it. I've instead encouraged people to use the "Insert Alignment Tab" in the HeaderundefinedFooter Tools tab. This also creates 3 areas where people can put in text – at the left, in the center, and at the right. And since the default is to have Center and Right be based on the margins, the text in the headerundefinedfooter will move when the margins are changed, or if it's changed from Portrait to Landscape, etc.
FYI, you can also have the table resize IF you remember to select the table and choose "AutoFit to Window". Then you'll see it'll change in size when switching Portrait to Landscape.
Other advantages to the Alignment Tabs vs a table is that tables always have to have a paragraph mark after them. (Now the trick there is that you can shrink the paragraph down to 1pt, but that can be cumbersome.) And let's say the pathundefinedname of the document is going to be on the left – in a table if it gets really big the row height is automatically increased and take up more space in the footer. (FYI, the trick to avoid that if it's a table is to set the row height to be exactly a certain height – though that will cutoff text that wraps around.) Using the Alignment Tabs, if the text goes past the first Center Tab, it then continues to fill that line and move the page number to the line below. It's pretty cool!
(FYI, the shortcut key to delete a table is to select it and hit the Backspace key. Hitting delete remove the contents, but leave the table there. Columns and rows can be deleted the same way.)
And this might be for more advanced users: you can create a footer so that it'll put in Page 1 of 10 when there's more than 1 page and only "Page 1" if it's only one page using IF statements. Also using IF to put in the pathundefinedname on the last page only.
Deb,
When I select my tables, I also use the "move symbol". In my years as a trainer, I've come across many different types of users. Some have the "sticky-clicker syndrome" – and if they click and accidentally drag the move symbol it makes the table into an object like a picture and that causes issues, especially in the footer. The method that seems to consistently work for my students is simply to click in the first cell, hold and drag to the last cell. It highlights the entire table and then they can turn off the borders the way you described.
One other trick you could mention is to set the internal margins of the table to be 0" on the left and right. The default is to have it be .08" and that's fine if there are borders, but when there aren't it's not on the margin. (FYI, once you correct it the view may not show it right away, but when you look at the print preview or sometimes switching from Draft View back to Print Layout View, it refreshes the screen.)
From way back to Office 2003 and earlier versions, I learned to NOT put tables in the headerundefinedfooter. It used to cause weird corruption. I think it's improved since version 2007, but I'm still gun-shy about using it. I've instead encouraged people to use the "Insert Alignment Tab" in the HeaderundefinedFooter Tools tab. This also creates 3 areas where people can put in text – at the left, in the center, and at the right. And since the default is to have Center and Right be based on the margins, the text in the headerundefinedfooter will move when the margins are changed, or if it's changed from Portrait to Landscape, etc.
FYI, you can also have the table resize IF you remember to select the table and choose "AutoFit to Window". Then you'll see it'll change in size when switching Portrait to Landscape.
Other advantages to the Alignment Tabs vs a table is that tables always have to have a paragraph mark after them. (Now the trick there is that you can shrink the paragraph down to 1pt, but that can be cumbersome.) And let's say the pathundefinedname of the document is going to be on the left – in a table if it gets really big the row height is automatically increased and take up more space in the footer. (FYI, the trick to avoid that if it's a table is to set the row height to be exactly a certain height – though that will cutoff text that wraps around.) Using the Alignment Tabs, if the text goes past the first Center Tab, it then continues to fill that line and move the page number to the line below. It's pretty cool!
(FYI, the shortcut key to delete a table is to select it and hit the Backspace key. Hitting delete remove the contents, but leave the table there. Columns and rows can be deleted the same way.)
And this might be for more advanced users: you can create a footer so that it'll put in Page 1 of 10 when there's more than 1 page and only "Page 1" if it's only one page using IF statements. Also using IF to put in the pathundefinedname on the last page only.
-Charles