when you're working with powerpoints
usually your goal is to communicate
information to someone or to a group of
people that's information can be
communicated in various ways such as
pictures or lists another way is by
presenting information in an organized
table I want to tell people about the
classes we offer at the high-tech
Technology Center I think a table will
be the best way to present that
information there are several ways we
can insert a table and PowerPoint if the
slide layout has a content placeholder
like this one with the various insert
commands you can just click the insert
table command a small insert table
dialog box appears from here you can
choose how many columns and rows you
want in your table let's see I need 2
columns and 5 rows click OK and a table
appears let's go ahead and enter some of
our text you can press the tab key on
your keyboard to move from cell to cell
or use the arrow keys to navigate I'll
just skip the description right now and
we'll enter that later I have a few more
classes to enter such as Windows XP and
QuickBooks when we inserts at the table
two new tabs appeared on the ribbon the
design and layout tab
both of these tabs are table tools that
appear when the table is selected did
you notice how my table is a nice teal
color that matches the slide that isn't
an accident when you insert the table it
automatically appears formatted as a
table style and colored it looks good
with our current theme concourse we can
see on the design tab the table that is
selected in the table
Styles group in the table style options
group you can see that header row is
selected which is why the table on our
slide has a different color from the
first row bandit Rose is also selected
which is why the table alternates colors
for the rows you can toggle any of these
options on and off by simply clicking
the box if you want to select a
different table style just hover your
mouse over a style in the group a live
preview of the style displays on the
slide we'll just click the more arrow to
see all the options
I like the colors but want something a
little different just click a style to
select it and it will change on the
slide next to the table styles in the
same group you can see three other
commands that you can use to modify the
table the first one is the shading
command you can use this command to
change the colors of your table for
example if you want your header row to
be a lighter color just select the row
click the shading command and choose a
color from the menu as you hover over a
color a live preview will appear on the
slide from this menu you can also choose
to use no fill color or even choose a
picture from your computer to use to
shade the selected row you can apply a
gradient to the existing color or a
texture I will just stay with something
simple and choose this slightly lighter
shade sometimes simple is best using the
border command you can add a border to
the entire table or specific rows
columns or cells for example if I want
to add a black line under the first row
I can just select the first row click
the borders command and choose bottom
border
now when I click off the table I can see
a border on the bottom of that row the
third command is the effects command if
you click the command you'll see you
have a variety of effect options
including beveling cells adding shadows
and adding reflections to use any of
these options just select the rows you
want to modify click the effects command
and then click an option to select it I
think some of these cell bevel effects
can be fun but for right now I'll just
click undo and stay with my current
table from the design tab you can also
apply word art styles to text and change
the table borderline width and color the
Layout tab offers you more commands that
give you the ability to really modify
your table there are too many options to
explain all of them so let's go over the
key points sometimes you may need to
insert or delete rows or columns for
example I realize I need to add a new
class to my table I want to add it
beneath QuickBooks so I'll just place my
insertion points in that row and then
click the inserts below command to
insert and roads are rectly beneath it
you can also do the same and insert rows
above a current row to delete a row just
place the insertion points in the row
you want to delete click the delete
command and then select delete row you
can do the same thing with columns just
place the insertion point in a column
near to where you want the new column to
appear I want to add a column here and
so I'll click the inserts write command
see that wasn't difficult at all just so
you know if you don't want to use the
ribbon commands you can also right-click
to display a menu with various insert
Enza leads options while your insertion
point is in the table sometimes I find
this way faster than using the commands
but it will be up to you to decide what
works best for you now we can see the
first column changed a bit with the
addition of the new column if you want
to adjust the column width or row
Heights just click the line and while
holding the mouse button drag it to the
desired location from the layouts tab
you can change the cell and table size
to specific measurements by simply
selecting the cells you want to modify
and changing the numbers in the fields
my insertion point is in the first row
and if I increase the cell height in the
cell size group I can see it change in
the table one last group I want to point
out on this tab is the alignment group
this contains commands that format the
alignment of text you can left right and
center align text in your table by
clicking the commands and you can change
the horizontal alignment of the text by
clicking the align top align bottom or
since are vertically command there are a
couple of other commands on the
alignment group but I'll let you explore
those on your own at the beginning of
this lesson I told you there were a
couple of ways to insert a table on a
slide if the slide layout you are using
doesn't have a content placeholder with
the insert table command you can always
select to the insert tab on the ribbon
and then click the table command from
the menu you can use the squares to
select how many rows and columns your
table will have or you can select insert
table to open the dialog box we saw
before you can also insert an Excel
spreadsheet as a table right now I'll
just use the menu to select a table with
five rows and three columns then I'll
just left-click and the table will
appear on the slide
I obviously don't want this to cover my
current table so I'll just move the new
table to do this place the cursor over
the edge of the table when the cursor
becomes a crosshair with four arrows
click and drag the table and then
release the button to drop the table in
the new location moving and resizing
tables is just like moving text boxes
and pictures I'm going to go ahead and
add the data to my tables why don't you
give all these new table tools a truck