That's correct. Multiple columns, in Word's world, are a property of a
section, which is defined as the entire area between two section
breaks (and for this purpose the beginning and end of the document
count as section breaks). A table must be entirely within one section;
if you try to insert a section break inside a table, it splits the
table into two pieces.

The result is that you can put a table into a multi-column section,
but you cannot put a multicolumn section inside a table.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Sat, 5 Sep 2009 13:04:02 -0700, MayaSauer
<MayaSauer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>So you say that multiple columns can't be used inside a 1 column table?
>
>"Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
>
>> Since you evidently can't use "Columns" inside a table cell, why don't
>> you want to have the option of using two cells? Note that besides
>> Merge in the first row, you could also Split a cell in the second row
>> to make two cells.
>>
>> On Sep 5, 12:43 pm, MayaSauer <MayaSa...@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi - thank you.
>> >
>> > The text in the table is a paragraphs that need to be a 1 column format
>> > with the option to have the text formatted - if one wanted to - to 2 columns
>> > using the format - column menu option that word provides. The idea is not to
>> > actually format the table but format the text inside the table. I don't
>> > want to have the table pre formatted to 2 columns.
>> >
>> > makes sense?
>> >
>> > Thanks a bunch -
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > "Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
>> > > You could make a two- or three-column table, two rows, and then Merge
>> > > the cells in the top row, in order to have a single cell to put your
>> > > image in. (Select the two or three cells in the top row and choose
>> > > "Merge" from the Tables menu.) You should probably add the border
>> > > before you do the merging; merged cells can be a bit unpredictable.
>> >
>> > > On Sep 5, 10:22 am, MayaSauer <MayaSa...@discussions.microsoft.com>
>> > > wrote:
>> > > > I have a table - 1 column (would like it to stay at 7.26 wide) and 1 row. At
>> > > > the top I placed in image and then I have a couple of paragraphs of text. I
>> > > > would like to have the option to format the couple of paragraphs of text into
>> > > > 2 or possible 3 columns, but when I do the table becomes half the size, cuts
>> > > > the border off and doesn't show my text in columns.
>> >
>> > > > Is it possible to have text formatted into multiple columns inside a word
>> > > > 2003 table without having to preset the table to 2 columns? The reason I used
>> > > > the table is so I can have a colored border around this entire section.-
>>