Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life
using regular text to create your slides
is fine in most cases but for something
that requires more organization you
might want to try a table instead this
will let you enter your text in columns
and rows instead of lines or paragraphs
to create a table go to the insert tab
click the table command then mouse over
the grid to select the number of cells
you want my tables going to be pretty
big six rows by six columns now click
and that's all it takes you might need
to move your table to get it in the
right place on the slide to move your
table just place your cursor on the edge
click and drag and then let go to change
the size use the sizing handles here
now we can enter some of our text all
you have to do is click the cell you
want then go ahead and start typing you
can also use the tab key or the arrow
keys to navigate right now I'm using the
down arrow to make my way down this
first column
adding more columns and rows to a table
is easy I'd like to try inserting one
under the row that starts with mr. e to
do this go up to the Layout tab then
look for the options in the rows and
columns group here you can insert a row
above or below your current position or
a column to the left or right to delete
a row or column the steps are fairly
similar first place your cursor in one
of your cells then click the command
that says delete in this example we're
going to delete the row let's fast
forward to the finished table now that
the data is filled in I thought we'd
take a closer look at the Layout tab
which appears anytime you have your
table selected the first thing I'd like
to do is make the table a little bigger
but instead of relying on the sizing
handles I'm going to adjust the height
of my current cell here then click
distribute rows to make the rows even
again next we're going to click the edge
of the table to select the entire thing
and then change the text alignment using
the commands in the alignment group
Center looks best finally I'd like to
combine these two cells into one also
known as merging this option is useful
if your table has data that spans
several different rows or columns all
you have to do is select the cells you
want then click the merge cells command
so this is looking pretty good I think
I'd like to change some of the
formatting now including the colors and
borders we can do that using the options
on the design tab notice how the table
has a gray color scheme that matches the
text on the slide that's no accident
basically the table is already using a
table style that's designed to go with
the current theme to check out other
styles open the drop-down menu
you can also customize the way your
table is laid out using the table style
options here these let you control
things like special formatting in the
first column and also the header row
these will all have a different effect
depending on your current table style so
you might need to experiment to get the
look you want
you may have noticed that this table
doesn't have borders between most of the
cells to add or change the border just
select the cells you want to modify
then look to the draw borders group here
you can select a line style
lineweight
and also a color for your border
when you're ready click the drop-down
arrow
to the borders command then choose where
you want the border to go I want mine to
go on the inside which will place the
border between the cells as you can see
there are lots of ways to use and
customize tables and PowerPoint they can
make your data easier to understand and
also add a little extra something to
your presentation