Selecting Cells, Rows, Columns, and the Entire Table

Selecting Cells , Rows, Columns , and the Entire Table

Before you can truly customize the look of the table, you should take a moment to consider how you want the final product to look. Figures 28.4 and 28.5 show the same information in two tables with completely different looks.

Figure 28.4. A Green Earth table with custom formatting.

Figure 28.5. The same Green Earth table with different formatting.

When you create custom tables, you may want to format the entire table or parts of that table. To format a part of a table, you select the part you want to format.

Selecting Tables Properly

When the table is selected, nothing is highlighted. The table placeholder border will change from diagonal dashed lines to a dotted line.

When the table is selected, all formatting changes ”that is, border, shading, font, and so on ”will affect the entire table.

To select multiple columns, rows, or cells, use the mouse to drag through the items you want to select.

You can also select a column by placing the mouse pointer above the column (so that the pointer becomes a down-pointing black arrow, as shown in Figure 28.6) and clicking.

Figure 28.6. When the mouse changes to a down arrow, you can select a column.