Adding Impact with Custom Borders and Shading

When you really want to dazzle your audience and make them sit up and pay attention, customize the table with borders and shading. The table in Figure 28.8 shows a table that has been formatted with customized borders and shading.

Figure 28.8. A table with customized borders and shading draws the attention of an audience.

When you create a table in PowerPoint, it is usually formatted with a border around each cell and no fill (or shading). Changes made to the border and fill style affect only those cells that are selected. This enables you to have different borders and fill styles for different table elements, as shown previously. Changing the border or fill style of a table is easy to do. You have two choices: Use the Format Table dialog box or use the Tables and Borders toolbar buttons .

The following steps illustrate making changes using the Format Table dialog box. This dialog box offers a few additional options that are not available from the Tables and Borders toolbar.

If you want to change the border or shading style for the table, use the following steps:

1. Select the cell, row, column or table you want to format.

2. Chose Table, Borders and Fill from the Tables and Borders toolbar to open the Format Table dialog box.

3. Click the Borders tab in the Format Table dialog box if it is not currently displayed.

4. Select a border style, color , and width.

5. Click the diagram borders or buttons to change the border style.

   

   If you click the buttons, you need to click twice. The first click turns the border off, and the second click turns it back on with the new style settings.

   
   

6. Click the Preview button to see a preview of your changes.

7. Click the Fill tab.

8. Select a fill color from the fill drop-down list.

9. Click the Preview button to see a preview of your changes.

10. Click the OK button when finished.