PowerPoint 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Creating Tables

Since ancient times, people have organized information into tables—rows and columns containing a number or bit of text in each cell. By now, you'd think working with tables would be a no-brainer.

It's not. Adding a table to your slideshow is easier in PowerPoint 2007 than it was in earlier versions of the program and the results are more impressive looking. But thanks to the overwhelming number of choices PowerPoint 2007 gives you, the process of adding a table can cause more headaches then ever. You start with four ways to create a table, plus you have dozens of ways to tweak every imaginable table element, from the lines that separate your columns to the shading that appears in your rows.

But nothing lets your audience compare figures better than a table. So eventually, you must create one. This section shows you the easiest way to create a table. Then, you'll see how to add the basics: data, a title, column headings, and so on.

Creating a Basic Table

PowerPoint gives you four different ways to create a table: by mousing over a grid, by typing your table dimensions into the Insert Table box, by drawing the table's outline on a slide, or by inserting an Excel table. Most of the time, you want to use one of the first two options, which are the quickest and easiest. (You can read about the other two methods in the boxes in Section 6.3.1.1.)

Whichever approach you choose, after you've created your table, you need to fill it with data and add a title and column headings. ...