Inserting a Table in PowerPoint

Before you create a table, it's a good idea to think about the information you want to present. How will you arrange the data?

For example, say a slide show includes sequential slides describing various products, including their costs, availability, and purposes. As a summary, you create a table similar to the one in Figure 8.1 that gives the audience a better overview of the products.

Figure 8.1. If properly conceived, tables can make large amounts of information more easily understood.

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Before you create the table, you have to determine whether you want the products in rows and the features in columns or some other arrangement. Sometimes it makes sense to have a single category with lots of items in the rows, and only a limited number of defining features across the columns, as in the table shown in Figure 8.1.

In any case, try to determine the number of columns and rows you need before you create a table. You can add or remove columns or rows later, but a little advance planning can save you work in the long run.

Creating a Standard Table

There are several simple ways to insert a standard table into a PowerPoint slide. If the entire slide is being devoted to the table, the easiest method is to choose the Table layout from the Slide Layout task pane.

To display the Slide Layout pane, choose Format, Slide Layout. Or if the task pane is already open, click the Task Pane drop-down menu and select Slide Layout. Scroll through the list of slide layouts until you see the Title and Table layout. Click this layout to apply it to the slide (see Figure 8.2).

Figure 8.2. You can use the Title and Table layout to easily create a PowerPoint table.

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To create a table, double-click the table placeholder. PowerPoint displays the Insert Table dialog box, which asks how many columns and rows you need (see Figure 8.3). You should indicate how many and then click OK to insert the table.

Figure 8.3. You use the Insert Table dialog box to establish the initial number of columns and rows in a table.

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A variation on this approach is to select one of the content layouts for example, the Content layout or the Title and Content layout. After you select one of these layouts, PowerPoint places a content placeholder on the slide (see Figure 8.4). You then click the table icon in the placeholder, and PowerPoint asks how many rows and columns to insert before it creates the table.

Figure 8.4. Content layouts include the Table layout, among other content options.

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If you simply want to add a table to an existing slide, without being constrained by the table placeholder, you can choose Insert, Table. PowerPoint displays the Insert Table dialog box (refer to Figure 8.3). Choose the number of columns and rows you need and then click OK.

graphics/insert_table.gif Finally, you can use the Insert Table button on the main toolbar to add a table to a slide. Click the button to display a grid, and then drag the mouse to select the number of rows and columns you need (see Figure 8.5). If you need more than the 5 columns and 4 rows shown, just keep dragging right or down to expand the grid. The maximum number of columns or rows that you can choose is limited by the resolution of your screen, typically about 20 rows or columns. However, it's unlikely that you'll ever want that many columns or rows in a PowerPoint slide show.

Figure 8.5. Using the Insert Table button is a quick and easy way to insert a table the size of your choosing.

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Inserting a standard table by using any of these methods gives you a table within a text box (see Figure 8.6). The columns and rows are evenly spaced. Row heights are determined by the height of the default font.

Figure 8.6. A table is an evenly divided grid of rows and columns in which you place text.

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As shown in Figure 8.6, PowerPoint displays the Tables and Borders toolbar. But before we tackle the options on the toolbar, let's explore some table basics.

Adding Text and Graphic Objects to a Table

Tables use some of the same terminology as spreadsheets (for example, columns, rows). The intersections of columns and rows the small boxes within tables are called cells.

To add text to a cell, click the cell and begin typing. PowerPoint uses the default font of the design layer chosen. As you add text, you have several options:

  • Table cells automatically expand vertically to accommodate the text that fills them. If you keep typing, text wraps to a new line, thus expanding the row and making all cells in that row the same height (see Figure 8.7).

    Figure 8.7. Text wraps within the constraints of a column and automatically expands the row size.

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  • To advance to the next cell, press the Tab key. You can remove your hand from the keyboard and click the mouse in the next cell but using the Tab key is easier.

  • To back up to the preceding cell, press Shift+Tab. Although you can also use the arrow keys to navigate around the cells, if a cell contains text, using Tab and Shift+Tab to move to the next cell or the previous cell is much quicker.

  • If you press Tab at the end of a row, PowerPoint advances the insertion point to the first cell in the next row.

  • If you press Tab in the last cell of the table, PowerPoint adds another row and advances the insertion point to the first cell in that row.

Besides typing text in table cells, you can also copy and paste from any Windows program to any cell, and you can copy and paste from one cell to another.

What about other objects, such as graphic images? In a Word document, you can paste an image directly into a table cell, and the cell expands to accommodate it. In PowerPoint, however, tables and images are always separate objects. When you add an image object, you lay it on top of other objects, including tables. Even if you copy a Word table that contains an image into PowerPoint, the table and the image become separate objects in PowerPoint.

In PowerPoint, tables are useful for organizing textual information, but not for organizing graphics or other types of content.



Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
Absolute Beginners Guide to Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
ISBN: 0789729695
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 154
Authors: Read Gilgen

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