When you're working with PowerPoint, usually your goal is to communicate information to
someone, or to a group of people. That 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
in 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 inserted the table, two new tabs appeared on the Ribbon.
Design and Layout tabs. 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 a table, it automatically appears formatted as a Table Style and color
that 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
for the first row. Banded Rows 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'll 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 border
line 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 point in that row,
and then click the Insert Below command to insert a row directly beneath it.
You can also do the same and Insert rows above a current row.
To delete a row, just place the insertion point 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 Insert Right 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 and Delete 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 height, just click the line and while holding the mouse button, drag it to the desired
location. From the Layout 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 Center 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 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 5 rows and 3 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 4 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 try?