Introduction
The goal of most PowerPoint presentations is to communicate information to someone, or to a group of people. The information can be communicated in various ways such as pictures, lists, or paragraphs of text. Another way is to use a table to organize the information. A table is a grid of cells arranged in rows and columns.
In this lesson, you will learn how to insert a table, apply a table style, and format the table using various commands.
To Insert a Table Using a Placeholder Command:
- Select the slide where you wish to insert a table.
- Click the Insert Table command in the placeholder. The Insert Table dialog box will appear.
- Enter the number of table columns and rows in the dialog box.
- Click OK. The table will appear on the slide, and the Design and Layout tabs will appear on the Ribbon.
- Enter text into the table.
You can move your insertion point from cell to cell in the table using the mouse or by pressing the Tab key on your keyboard. Additionally, the arrow keys can be used to navigate the table.
About Table Styles and Options
When you insert a table, PowerPoint automatically applies a table style to the table. You can see the style options in the Table Styles group on the Design tab. PowerPoint applies a style based on the theme of your presentation. In the example, PowerPoint applied a teal colored table style to blend with the colors of the Concourse theme.
Options on the Design Tab
Some of the most commonly used options include:
- Header Row: Select this option to format the first row of the table differently than other rows.
- Banded Rows: Select this option to format the table with banded rows (i.e., every other row will alternate colors).
- WordArt Options: Use these commands to apply WordArt to text in the table.
- Border Options: Use these commands to perform common tasks including changing the border line width and color.
To Apply a Table Style:
- Select the table.
- Select the Design tab to access all the Table Styles and Options.
- Move your cursor over a table style in the Table Styles group to see a live preview of the style on the slide.
- Click the More drop-down arrow to see all the options.
- Click a style to select it.
Formatting a Table Style
To Change Table Shading:
- Select the table.
- Select the Design tab.
- Select the rows or columns you want to modify.
- Click the Shading command in the Table Styles group.
- Move your cursor over a color option to see a live preview of the color on the slide.
- Click a color to select it.
Or Select: - No Fill: This option will leave the selected item without a fill color.
- More Fill Colors: Opens a dialog box of color choices that you can use as a shading color.
- Picture: Opens the Insert Picture dialog box. From here, you can select a picture from your computer to use as the shading.
- Gradient: Displays a sub menu of various gradient options that changes how the shaded color appears.
- Textures: Displays a sub menu of various textures that you can apply to the selected item.
To Apply a Border:
- Select the table.
- Select the Design tab.
- Select the rows or columns you want to modify. In this example, I want to add a line beneath the first row, so I will select the first row.
- Click the Borders command in the Table Styles group.
- Select a borders option from the menu. In this example, I need to select Bottom Border to apply a border to the bottom of the first row.
To Apply a Table Effect:
- Select the table.
- Select the Design tab.
- Select the rows or columns you want to modify.
- Click the Effects command. A menu will appear.
- Select a menu option. The options are: Cell Bevel, Shadow, and Reflection. This will display a sub menu.
- Select an effect option from the sub menu.