Over the years, I've found that many people do not know of a simple tool in Microsoft Word that allows you to convert content from a table to plain text, and vice versa. So, here's how it works.

The following example is for converting a table with content into plain text.

1. Move the mouse over the table you're wanting to convert. A little box will appear in the upper-left corner.
   
2. Click on the 4-way arrow in the upper left-hand corner to select the entire table. The table should look something like this:
3. On the Menu Bar, click on "Table", and then click on "Convert." If you do not see "Convert", then you'll need to click the bottom of the menu so that the complete list of options is displayed.
   
   
4. Click on "Table to Text..."
   
5. This brings up the options window. Here you can pick how you want to separate the content of the individual cells. "Paragraph marks" will put the content of each cell on a separate line. The other 3 options will put each row of your table on a separate line, and will put a "delineator" between the individual cells.
6. The final product looks like the following. Notice that the text is against the "Text Boundary" guide on the left, and each of the previous cells is separated by a tab.
   

The process for converting text to a table is pretty much the reverse.

Start out with your text, and select it like you were going to make it Bold. Click on "Convert > Text to Table" on the Menu bar. Tell Word how the cells are to be identified, either tabs, commas, other characters, or paragraphs are between them. And then click "OK". You'll end up with your previously untabled text in a nicely arranged cells.

Please note, however, that this works best with "rectangular" tables, i.e., tables that have the same number of cells on each row. If your rows or columns are not "equal", the end table will be of odd shape.