Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
tables are a great way to add more
advanced formatting to your worksheets
like banded rows preset color schemes
and other design elements that can save
you tons of time let's take a look to
create a table all you have to do is
select the cells you want to include
then click the format as table command
on the Home tab here you'll find several
different styles to choose from just
pick whichever one appeals to you the
most you can always choose a different
table style later if you want your table
to have special formatting in the header
row make sure you leave this box checked
you can also change the selection if you
need to when you're ready click OK and
now we have a table notice that every
table includes filtering by default
which will let you sort your data or
narrow it down depending on what you
need you can apply filtering anytime
using the drop down arrows here if you
need to fit more content into your table
not to worry Excel gives you two ways to
add more columns or rows in the same
style as the rest of the table just
enter your data in any adjacent column
or row and it'll be roped into the table
automatically you can also click hold
and drag the bottom right corner to
create any sized table you need this is
looking pretty good I think I'm ready to
try some different formatting options
now for that you'll find everything you
need on the design tab which appears
anytime you have your table selected
remember how I said you could change
your table style once you added one to
your worksheet you can do that here
using the options in the table Styles
group and this time you get a preview
this is one of the benefits of using
tables in Excel they make it easy to
change the look and feel of your
worksheet and it's a lot faster than
formatting the cells yourself why don't
we go with this one
next to the table Styles Excel gives you
a few more options for customizing your
table for example you could add special
formatting to the last column to make it
stand out or you could add a total row
these will all look slightly different
depending on the table style you've
chosen so you might need to experiment
to get the look you want if you change
your mind you can always remove the
table from your workbook without losing
any of your data just be aware that this
can cause issues with cell formatting so
it should only be done if you truly
intend to start over all you have to do
is make sure your table is selected then
click convert to range on the design tab
next click Yes to confirm and the range
will no longer be a table the design tab
has disappeared but you can still adjust
the formatting manually using the
options on the Home tab you can even use
the clear command to restart your
formatting from scratch now you know how
to add and remove tables in Excel
you