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Formatting Text

When you use PowerPoint, you can create a simple table with little formatting, or one with more complex formatting.

You can include fills and border colours from the presentation's colour scheme.

One way to format your tables is to use the (Table > Borders and Fill) dialog box.

You can also display using the Tables and Borders toolbar.

Tables and Borders toolbar

You can also use the following commands from the Tables and Borders toolbar.

 Border Style - Allows you to select the border you want to apply. The default is a solid line.

 Border Width - Allows you to select the thickness of the border. The default is 1 point.

 Borders - Allows you to apply different borders on all sides of the cells.

 Fill Color - The colours on the first line of the palette are from the current colour scheme. The colours on the second line are recently used colours.

Using the Borders toolbar

Displays a list of border sides allowing you to add or remove borders from one or more sides of the table or cells.

The Borders drop-down is actually a tear off toolbar.

 Outside Borders -

 All Borders -

 Inside Borders -

 No Border -

 Top Border -

 Bottom Border -

 Left Border -

 Right Border -

 Inside Horizontal Border -

 Inside Vertical Border -

 Diagonal Down Border -

 Diagonal Up Border -

When you apply a top, bottom, left or right border, those positions refer to the block of cells currently selected and not the individual cells.

Adding a top border will only add a border to the top of the block of cells and not to every cell currently selected.

You must use the inside borders to add borders to the inside of a block of cells.

Format Table - Borders tab

This dialog box can be displayed by selecting (Table > Borders and Fill)(Borders tab).

The border lines around each cell are used to separate the data and identify each individual cell.

Lets you change the style, colour and width of the borders around individual cells.

Format Table - Fill

This dialog box can be displayed by selecting (Table > Borders and Fill)(Fill tab).

Lets you select the fill colour for individual cells.

Semitransparent -

Things to Remember

It is possible to include bullets and numbering in your tables as well. Please refer to ?? For more details.

The Textbox tab of the Format Table dialog box is discussed on the next two pages.

You can quickly display the Format Table dialog box by double clicking on the size of the table object.

A nice font for tables is Frutiger 45 Light, 12

Try not to choose too small a font as your audience may not be able to read it.