PowerPoint Tutorials - Add a Table to a Slide

Tables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Charts Flow Charts

In this section, you'll learn how to add a Table to a PowerPoint slide, and how to format it. The table you're going to design is this one:

The table you will design

This is slide seven in the Slide Show you have been working on. Load up Presentation Three again to see what the table looks like.

Make a start by clicking Insert > New Slide from the PowerPoint menu bar at the top. The New Slide dialogue box (PowerPoint 2000) and the Task Pane (PowerPoint 2003) have a template for tables:

Table template in PowerPoint 2000

PowerPoint 2000

Table template in PowerPoint 2003

PowerPoint 2003

Select the Table template, and you'll see a slide like this appear:

Table Template in both versions of PowerPouint

Add the following Title at the top:

How happy are you in your job?

The font we used was Times New Roman, and the size was 44. When you've added the Title, double click inside the area that says "Double click to add table".

As soon as you double click, you'll see a small dialogue box appear:

Insert a 5 by 5 table

You are being asked how many Columns and Rows you want in your table. Enter 5 for each, as in the image. Then click OK

When you click OK, you'll see two things happen: a table will appear on your slide, and a Tables and Borders toolbar will appear. Here's the toolbar in PowerPoint 2000:

Tables and Borders toolbar in PowerPoint 2000

And the toolbar for 2003 users:

Tables and Borders toolbar in PowerPoint 2003

(If you can't see the toolbar then, from the PowerPoint menu at the top, click View > Toolbars > Tables and Borders.)

Here's what your table will look like:

A blank PowerPoint Table

If your table looks too small, you can zoom in a bit. Have a look at the PowerPoint menu bars at the top, and locate the zoom dropdown list:

The zoom toolbar

Set it to Fit, to fill the main stage.

But notice that the cursor is flashing in the first cell of your table. Information can be typed in the cells, but we don't need anything in the first one. The information to type into your cells is as follows:

The data for the table

Just type the information for now, and don't worry if the text spills over onto two lines. We'll fix that in a moment. But when you've finished typing, your slide may look something like this rather messy one:

The font size is too big

As you can see, the font size is far too big. So big, in fact, that the table is off the slide! We'll see how to fix that in the next lesson

PowerPoint Tables