Office 2007 Bible

Creating a New Table

A table is a great way to organize little bits of data into a meaningful order. For example, you might use a table to show sales results for several salespeople or to contain a multicolumn list of team member names.

Note

Text from a table does not appear in the presentation’s outline.

There are several ways to insert a table, and each method has its purpose. The following sections explain each of the table creation methods.

A table can be part of a content placeholder, or it can be a separate, free-floating item. If the active slide has an available placeholder that can accommodate a table, and there is not already content in that placeholder, the table is placed in it. Otherwise the table is placed as an independent object on the slide, and is not part of the layout.

Tip

Depending on what you want to do with the table, it could be advantageous in some cases to not have the table be part of the layout. For example, perhaps you want the table to be a certain size and to not change when you apply a different theme. To ensure that the table is not part of the layout, start with a slide that uses a layout that contains no table-compatible placeholder, such as Title Only.

Note

In earlier versions of PowerPoint, an AutoLayout feature changed the layout to one that contained a table placeholder if none were available. A lot of people found that annoying, though, and PowerPoint 2007 does not do it.

Creating a table with the Insert Table dialog box

To create a basic ...