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 | In this article you will find 6 things that most presenters do not know about working with PowerPoint tables. The tools make it easier to customize the table and saves time too. |
Let us start by adding a table to a PowerPoint slide. We added the table using the Table icon available on a new slide.
2 Options to Add a Table in PowerPoint
Now that we have added a table, let’s get started with the 6 points right away.
1. Selecting entire row or column in 1 click
When you move your cursor to the left of a table, your cursor turns into a small black arrow as shown below. When you click, you would be able to select the entire row of the table.
Select Table Row
The same way, when you click on the top of a table, you will be able to select the entire column on seeing the down arrow cursor. To select a cell, take your cursor to bottom left corner of a cell. Click when you see the cursor turning into a black arrow.
Select Table Column
Quick Tip: To select all the cells, click and drag across all the cells in the table. You can also click on any cell and press Ctrl +A.
If you don’t want any color applied to the cells, you can select the ‘Clear Table’ option at the bottom of the Quick style sets:
2. Scale the table without losing proportions:
Whenever you resize a table, it is essential to keep the proportions intact. To do this, click on the ‘Lock aspect ratio’ option in the ‘Table size’ group. When you increase the height or width, the table gets expanded proportionately.
Lock Aspect Ratio for Table
Note that the row height of a table won’t shrink beyond the font height of the text.
Related: 3 Steps to Styling your table
3. Adding Multiple Rows easily
To add a row to a table, take your cursor to the bottom right corner cell and press the ‘Tab’ button. It is easy to add multiple rows at the same time. For example, when you want to add three rows, select 3 rows in the existing table. Then go to the ‘Layout’ tab in PowerPoint ribbon and add ‘Insert Rows’ button.
Insert table rows
The same procedure applies when you want to add columns to the table. Select the number of columns and Insert right or left.
4. Ways to merge cells
To merge cells in a table, select the cells and go to ‘Merge cells’ option in the ‘Layout’ tab in PowerPoint. Another way to merge two cells in a table is, to click on ‘Eraser’ and click on the line between two cells.
Merge cells in a table
5. Split Cells easily
You can split a cell into a number of columns or rows as you do in Excel. Select the cell you want to split and go to ‘Split cells’. This opens up the following dialog box:
Menu to Split Cells
You can enter the number of columns and rows to split. In the example below, we split the cell into 2 rows and 3 columns.
6. Apply texture to cells
When you fill a table with picture, the picture gets filled on each of the cells in the table. Thus, you can have a nice texture for your table by choosing a texture to fill the cells as shown below:
These are some of the things that are not normally known to presenters.
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