Tables

Tables are used in the arrangement or organization of data that has many details to be described. Tables are made up of rows and columns.

In this tutorial, I will be showing you how to create table, move table, delete table, insert cells, rows and columns to a table, resize rows, columns and table, set equal width and height for cells, merge cells, split cell, split a table, table content alignment, using table styles, adding shades to table, adding borders to table and a few others.

• INSERTING OR CREATING A TABLE

There are various steps or ways which you can use to insert a table in PowerPoint. Follow the steps below to do this.

• Step 1 - Place your text cursor at the position in your slide where you want to insert the table.


• Step 2 - Click on the Insert tab, go the Tables group and click the Tables command. (This will display a dropdown box with options that you can use to insert a table)


• Step - 3 (Using your mouse) - In the dropdown box, use your mouse pointer to draw out the rows and columns that you want your table to contain, by moving it down and across the columns and rows, then click to insert the table.



• Step - 3 (Using the Insert Table option) - In the dropdown box, click on the Insert table option.
  From the dialog box displayed, input the number of rows and columns you want your table to contain and click the OK button.

• MOVING TABLE
• Step 1 - Place mouse pointer on either the top, bottom, left or right line on the table that you want to move. Your mouse pointer will change to the move icon (cross symbol) as shown in the image below.
  
  
• Step 2 - Hold down the click button and move it to where you want to place the table, and then release the click button. Your table will be successfully placed in that position.
  
  
  

• DELETING A TABLE

There are several ways to delete a table in PowerPoint. You can use any of the two methods below.

• METHOD 1 - Select the entire table and press the Delete key on your keyboard. The table will be deleted.
• METHOD 2 - Click any where on the table you want to delete.
  In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Rows and Columns group and click on the Delete command. From the dropdown list, click on Delete Table. Your table will be successfully deleted.


• METHOD 3 - Right Click on the table you want to delete. From the Mini tool bar above, click on the Delete option. From the dropdown list of options click the Delete Table option and the table will be deleted.

• INSERTING CELLS, ROWS OR COLUMNS TO A TABLE


TIP:

Cell is an insertion of a row and a column. Row is the line that runs horizontally, while Column is the line that runs vertically in a table.

• Step 1 - Go to the point on the table that your want to insert cells, rows or columns and click on it to put your text cursor there.


• Step 2 - Click on the Layout tab, go to the Rows and Columns group click on your desired choice.
  • Insert above: One row will be added above that point.
  • Insert below: One row will be added below that point.
  • Insert left: One column will be added to left side.
  • Insert right: One column will be added to right side.
  
  
  
• Step 3 - The cell, row or column will be inserted successfully.



You can also add rows and columns by using the mini tool bar.
Right click on point where you want to insert column or row, from the mini-toolbar displayed, click on the Insert option. This will display options to Insert Columns to the Left, Insert Columns to the Right, Insert Row Above and Insert Rows Below.

• DELETING CELLS, ROWS AND COLUMNS IN A TABLE
• METHOD 1 - Select the cell(s), rows(s) or columns(s) that you want to delete.
  Right click on it. From the mini-toolbar displayed, click on the Delete option. This will display options to Delete Cells, Delete Columns, Delete Rows and Delete Table. Click on your desired choice.



• METHOD 2 - Select the cell(s), rows(s) or columns(s) that you want to delete.
  In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Rows and Columns group and click on the Delete command. From the dropdown list, click on the delete option command for cells, rows or columns. It will be successfully deleted.

• RESIZING ROW, COLUMN AND TABLE
• RESIZING ROW - Place your mouse pointer on top of the row line that you want to resize.
  Hold the click button and move the resize icon to your desired direction. (moving upwards - increases the row size, while moving downwards - decreases row size)





NOTE:

Do not use the first-row line of the table for resizing, clicking and trying to resize it will move the entire table.

• RESIZING COLUMN - Place your mouse pointer ontop of the column line that you want to resize.
  Hold the click button and move the resize icon to your desired direction. (moving right - increases the row size, while moving left - decreases row size)



• RESIZING TABLE

In PowerPoint, the table has Eight (8) points which you can use to resize the table to your desired size.

• Step 1 - Place your mouse pointer on any of the points and you mouse pointer will be changed to the (resize icon) double head arrow icon.


• Step 2 - Hold down the click button and move the resize icon to resize your table to your preferred height and width, and then release the click button. Your table will be resized successfully.
  
  
  

• SET EQUAL WIDTH AND HEIGHT FOR CELLS
• Step 1 - Click any area on the table.
• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Cell size group and click on the Distribute row and Distribute column command. And the cells in your table will now have the same width and height


• Step 3 - In the Layout tab, inside the Cell size group at the right side of the Distribute row and Distribute column command, you can input the size values you want for the rows and columns. This means that you can have evenly distributed rows with the same size, but different from the evenly distributed columns with its on size.

• MERGE CELLS

Merging of cells is usually important especially when your table have different titles or headings. You can follow the steps below to merge cells.

• Step 1 - Select the cells that you want to merge in your table.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Merge group and click on the Merge cells command. This will merge the selected cells into one cell.


• Step 2 (Alternative) - Right click on the selected cells.
  From the dropdown list, click on the Merge cells option. This will merge the selected cells into one cell.

• SPLIT CELL

In some complex tables, there can be more than one information in one category. You can divide one cell into many cells.

• Step 1 - Click on the cell that you want to split.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Merge group and click on the Spilt cells command. (A dialog box will be display)
  From the dialog box, set the number of cells you want to divide the cell into.


• Step 3 - Click the Okay button and the cell will be splitted.



You can split more than one cell at a time, by selecting the cells and following the same method above.

• TEXT ALIGNMENT

There are Six (6) types of alignments for table in PowerPoint.

• 1. Align Left - This aligns the selected text to the left side of its cell.
• 2. Align Center - This aligns the selected text to the center of its cell.
• 3. Align Right - This aligns the selected text to the right side of its cell.
• 4. Align Top - This aligns the selected text to the top side of its cell.
• 5. Center Vertically - This aligns the selected text to the center of its cell vertically.
• 6. Align Bottom - This aligns the selected text to the bottom part of its cell.


• Step 1 - Select the cells containing text that you want to align.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Alignment group and click on your desired alignment button.

• TEXT DIRECTION

You can also control the direction of the text inside the any cell. Select the text that you want to change its direction.

• Step 1 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Alignment group and click on the Text Direction command. (Dropdown list of options will be displayed)


• Step 2 - From the drop list of align text options, click on the one you want to use and it will be applied to the text inside that text box.




NOTE:

To access more text direction options, you can click on the option More Options from the dropdown list.

You can also set the cell margins for the table by following the simple steps below.


• Step 1 - Select the cells that you want to add margin. OR click on the table.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Layout tab, and go to the Alignment group and click on the Cell Margins command. This will display dropdown list of default margin options to select from. You can click on any of them to apply them.
  
  
• Step 3 - To access more margin options, from the Cell Margins dropdown list, click on Custom Margins.
  
  
• Step 4 - The Cell Text Layout dialog box will be displayed. Here you can set Text layout vertical alignment and text direction, then also manually input the margin values you want for your internal margins for the top, bottom, right and left sides.
  
  
• Step 5 - To see how it looks like, click on the Preview and it will be applied to the cells you selected for the custom settings. Then if you are not okay with it you can re-adjust the values again.
  
  
• Step 6 - After you are done and satisfied with the preview checks, click on the OK button and your margin will be successfully applied.
  
  

• USING TABLE STYLES

Powerpoint provides table styles which you can use to speed up your work process when using tables for your slides.

• Step 1 - Click on the table that you want to add styles to.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Table Styles group and click on any of the styles you like, and the table style will be successfully applied to that table.



To view more table styles, click on the navigation down button, and this will display Best Match For Document, Light, Medium and Dark styles.




• CLEAR TABLE STYLE
• Step 1 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Table Styles group and click on the navigation down button.
  move downwards and click on the Clear Table option.


• Step 2 - The table style will be removed from the table successfully.

• APPLYING SHADING IN TABLES

In PowerPoint you can applying different types of shading in tables. Shadding is the solid, gradient, texture or pattern serves as the background of that cell, row, column or table. Follow the simple method below to do this.

• Step 1 - Select or Click on the cell that you want apply shading to inside your table.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Table Styles group and click on Shading. This will display a dropdown down list of options. The first and second section contains solid colors which you can click and it will applied to the table or selected cell. This is followed by the No Fill option which is used to remove shading color.



• Next option is the More Fill Colors. Which you click on this option, it will display a dialog box which you will find different colors (Standard and Custom).



• Next option is the Eye Dropper option which is used to pick color from any where around your slide.



• Next to the Eye Dropper option is the Picture option which is used to insert picture as the shading to the particular selected cell or the entire table.


• We can also use gradient for shading too, if you move down to the Gradients options, different variation of gradient will be displayed for you to use.




NOTE:

Gradients works with the color options, for instance if you change the color option to yellow from the first section, then move down to the gradient option, you will notice the gradient has changed inline with the color.

• We can also use texture for shading too, if you move down to the Texture options, different textures will be displayed for you to use.




TIP:

Clicking on the More Gradients and More Textures from their individual options below will open the Format Shape pane where you can see more options to customize for shading and other things.

• The last option on the shading dropdown list is the Table Background option. When you go to the option, it will display different solid colors, more color options, eye dropper, and the picture option which have already been explained earlier. All of which are used to change the shading of the table background.

• USING BORDERS IN TABLES

You can also apply borders inside a table or inside a particular cell, row or column

• Step 1 - Select or Click on the cell, row, column or table that you want to add border to.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Table Styles group and click on the Borders. This will display a dropdown down list of border options you can use.


• Step 3 - After clicking on any of the border options it will be applied successfully.

• APPLYING EFFECTS IN TABLES
• Step 1 - Select or Click on the cell, row, column or table that you want to apply effect to.


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Table Styles group and click on the Effects. This will display a dropdown down list of effect categories. If you go to each category, it will further display it individual effect options which you can click to apply to the selected cell, row, column or table.





• Step 3 - After clicking on any of the border options it will be applied successfully.




TIP:

Clicking on the Shadow Options and Reflection Options from their individual options below will open the Format Shape pane where you can see more options to customize.

• FORMATTING TABLE CELL DATA

You can also use another method for formatting cell data in your table, this can be down by using the options in your wordart styles group inside the table styles tab. Simply follow the steps below.

• Step 1 - Select or Click on the cell, row, column or table that you want to format its data (or values - texts, numbers etc).


• Step 2 - In your menu tab, click on the Table Design tab, and go to the WordArt Styles group there are different options for Quick Styles, Text Fill, Text Outline and Text Effects.
  Any of these options can be used according in formatting your table cell data in your desired way and style.


• Step 2 - Style applied successfully

• BORDER COLOR, THICKNESS AND TYPE IN TABLE
• Step 1 - Click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Draw Borders group. Here you can set the Pen Style, Pen Weight and Pen Color by clicking on their selection menu and from their dropdown list of options selecting the one you want to use.





• Step 2 - Once you are done with step 1 above. Now go to the Table Styles group and click on the border option. From the dropdown list of options displayed, select the border style that you want to use and click on it.


• Step 3 - The border will be applied with the color, thickness and style that you set.

• DRAWING A TABLE

In PowerPoint you can manually draw a table without using the normal table option method.

• Step 1 - Click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Draw Borders group then click on the Draw Table option.


• Step 2 - Your mouse pointer will be change to a pen icon, which you can use to draw out the weight and height of the rows, columns, cells that you want which is used to form a table.

• USING EARASER IN TABLE

The eraser option is used to erase cells, columns, row, or an entire table manually.

• Step 1 - Click on the Table Design tab, and go to the Draw Borders group then click on the Eraser option.


• Step 2 - Your mouse pointer will be change to an eraser icon, which you can use clean out any rows, columns, cells that you wish. (Just hold and drag through the line that you want to clean out).



• Step 3 - ALL DONE!