Question :
I have received a Word document from someone else and it has a large table in it that spreads over multiple pages. But the table consists of various chapters, so it would be more logical to split the table up into smaller tables. So one small table for each chapter. That would make the table’s content far easier to read and understand when reading it form paper after having it printed out.

Is there any way to split an existing table in a Word document ?

Answer :
Yes, there is… and it isn’t hard to do ; if it’s a large table spreading across multiple pages you might even want to split it both vertically and horizontally.

To split a table vertically (to divide it into an upper and a lower table) in Word 16 (from Office 365 and Office for Mac 2021 & 2019), do this :

• open the document in Word
• scroll down to the table you want to split
• in the table, select the cell that should be the first (upper left) cell of the lower table after the split
• then goto the top menu bar (the one that is fixed, not the one that is floating with the window) and select “Table” (in-between “Tools” and “Window”) and select “Split Table” from the pull-down menu that appears
• now the table has been split vertically into an upper and a lower table

That’s it ! …and of course you can repeat this as many times as you like 😉

To split a table horizontally (to divide it into a left and a right table) in Word 16 (from Office 365 and Office for Mac 2021 and 2019), do this :

• open the document in Word
• scroll down to the table you want to split
• if the table spreads across the page from the left to the right page margin, you will need to make some separation space first, to do that do this :
• > select the entire table and resize the width a little to the right, enough to have the space that you eventually need in-between the separated tables is on the right of the original table first (in short : squeeze the entire table a little)
• then, make sure there is at least two empty lines (of no text) below the table (in short : put the cursor behind or directly under the table and hit the ENTER-key 2 times, to create 2 empty lines)
• then, select all cells of the table that you want in the right table after the split ; they will turn blue
• then, drag the upper left blue cell ; that part of the table will now start moving along with your cursor
• drag your cursor below your table and release ; now you will have the split table that you would like on the right below the split table that you would like on the left
• then, hover over the lower table with your cursor
• when the drag-sign (little square with vertical and horizontal arrows inside) appears, select it and drag it
• when the dashed outline of the lower table starts moving with your cursor, drag it to the right of the upper table and release if it’s in place
• if it’s hard to get both tables aligned, you can use the zoom-slider in the bottom-right corner to zoom in and/or you can temporarily switch on page grid lines (not table grid lines) ; to switch on (and off) page grid lines, do this :
• > in the top bar of the Word document window, select “Layout” so a blue line will appear under it, then in the icons bar click on “Align” (in-between “Selection Pane” and “Group”) and select “View Gridlines” from the pulldown menu
  
  That’s it !
  enjoy 😉