Timesheet Column Reformatting - Volunteer Software

Word Timesheet – Reformatting Columns

This example adapts the Reporter’s sample monthly timesheet with its 31 columns for each day of the month to a simple monthly cumulative total with only 3 columns. You can modify the Word table to suit your needs.

Start with one of our sample timesheets. Highlight a sample timesheet on the Word Timesheets screen, e.g., Sample Hours by Station. Notice the three columns: Vol | Job | Sta. The column with the X indicates whether the template focuses on Volunteers, Stations or Jobs.

Click: Open for Editing in Word.

In Word, rename the sample to become your own timesheet [and thereby preserve the Sample for future use]. Click on File | Save As and give it a new name [without the word Sample in the name]. It must remain in the Shared Documents folder that is inside the data folder. Leave the extension as .doc(x).

Close Word.

Back in the Reporter, click the Add button to add your newly renamed timesheet to the list of available template.

Browse to the file name in the Actual File Name field.

Give it a descriptive name [without the word Sample in the name].

In Layout, select One job per page [for this example] to group the timesheets by Job. OK.

Customize the Text and Reformat the Columns

Highlight the newly named template on the list, click Open for editing in Word.

Now you can remove the sample header and info and type or paste in your own organization’s custom header.

Customize merged header fields as desired from the Insert Merge Field menu. In most versions of Word, click on the toolbutton to Insert Merge Field. Notice that a v prefixes Volunteers’ codes, a j prefixes Job codes, and an s prefixes Station codes which are available.

You can change this layout to just three columns, [for Volunteer, Job | Hours | Signature] by merging columns in the Word table.

Select the 1-31 cells in the first row, right-click, choose Merge Cells.
Then press Delete on the keyboard while it’s still highlighted to clear out the numbers.

Repeat merging the empty 31 cell blocks in the second and successive rows.

Tweak the table by re-labeling the column headers. Drag the column divider to the desired width.

Test merge your timesheet with the sample data. Click on the Merge toolbutton [Word 2003]. You will see sample data. Click again to return to the template merge fields.

Save your template and close word.

You can View Sample to see your own data and then Print back on the Word Timesheets screen with the new timesheet still highlighted in the list.

Word 2003 Tips

To change the top and bottom spacing inside table rows in Word 2003

Select the table.
Table | Properties | Row | Specify height [e.g., 24 px] | Exactly

To add table rows in Word 2003

Put the cursor in the bottom row to insert one row. Or highlight several rows to insert the same number of rows.

Table | Insert | Rows below

Then copy and paste the merge codes <<Next Record>><<vFirstLast>> into the new rows.

Word 2007 Tips

To change the top and bottom spacing inside table rows in Word 2007

Select the table.
Layout tab | Distribute Rows

To add table rows in Word 2007

Put the cursor in the bottom row to insert one row. Or highlight several rows to insert the same number of rows.

Layout tab | Rows & Columns | Insert below [rows icon]