Word: put a line above a table or list on top row

Self-tutoring about Word: the tutor mentions a trick he uses.

Sometimes I find that, if I’ve got a table or list at the top of a page in Word, I can’t add lines of text above it, because they become part of the table (or list).

There are a few workarounds for this. My most recent is that I always put a line of text above, such as “Hello”, even if I don’t expect to need it there. It’s easy to add any text from there, if needed. Below it, I type in the table or list. I can always delete the top-line text in case I don’t end up needing any there.