Advanced PowerPoint:
Table

Step-by-Step: Create a Table

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What you will learn:

to insert a new slide to add a table to a slide to format table text to add columns and rows to size columns and rows to distribute space evenly among columns or rows to insert a symbol (for degree) to stop AutoFit to format table borders

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Start with: ,  nz-animate.ppt from previous lesson Animate Images

You will add a large table to a new slide and format it to fit on the slide and be readable. Tricky!

Be aware that your table may not look quite like the illustrations along the way, depending on exactly what you type and how you insert new rows and columns.

The Story So Far:
You are creating a presentation on New Zealand for World Travel Inc. to show customers.
 
You will add a table that shows the average maximum and minimum temperatures for each season at several places in New Zealand, in both Celsius and Fahrenheit degrees.
 
This kind of information is very helpful to visitors. You do need to know whether to bring a swimsuit or a snowsuit!

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Add New Slide

1. If necessary, open nz-animate.ppt from the previous lesson, Animate Images.
    

2. Select the next to last slide, General Information.
    

3. Click the New Slide button on the Formatting Bar. A new slide appears after the selected slide.
    

4. Enter the slide's Title as  Temperatures .
    

5. Apply the Title-Table layout .
   The text placeholder changes to a table placeholder.

 

Any slide layout that includes an object like a clip art image, table, or chart will have an icon in the placeholder.  You can double click the icon to go straight to the process for creating or adding such an object. Some layouts give you a choice of icons: table, chart, clip art, image from file, diagram, media clip.

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Create Table

1. Double click the icon in the center of the slide. The Insert Table dialog appears.
    

2. Select 8 columns and 11 rows. The table appears on the slide, but some rows are hanging off the bottom of the slide. After you enter data, you will have to resize the rows and columns.
    

3. In the first row, enter the data:

   Bay of Islands

   19

   9

   25

   14

   21

   11

   16

   7

   These numbers are temperatures in Celsius degrees.

   Whoops. You need another column for the 7.
    

4. Save As  nz-table.ppt  to your Class disk.
   How to handle a full Class disk

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Add Column

Using the Table menu makes adding columns and rows easy. To add multiple columns or rows, you must select that many first. A bit unexpected.

1. Click in the last column somewhere.
    

2. From the Table menu on the Tables and Borders Bar, choose  Insert Columns to the Right . A new column appears at the right, expanding the table off the slide.
    
   If you select several columns first, using this command will produce as many columns as you had selected.

   Alternate: Right-click Menu to Add Column:
   Move your mouse over the top of the last column until the pointer changes to the Select Column shape. (This can be tricky! It may be easier if the table is not already selected.)  Click. The whole column is selected.

   Right click on the selected column and choose  Insert Columns  from the popup menu.
    
   A new blank column appears to the left of the selected column.
   
    

3. Fill in the data correctly for the first row.

   
    

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Format Table Text

Clearly the default font size is too large for your table. You can change that before you do any more data entries.

1. Select the entire table by clicking the table border. The border changes to small dots.
    

2. Change the Font Size to 20 on the Formatting Bar.
    
   Better since the rows are all now on the slide. But will you need more rows??
    
   Are some of your rows different heights? You will fix that later.
    

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Size Column: Drag

Your first column needs to be wider to hold the place name. The temperatures are going to have only 2 digits (no 100's for New Zealand!) so those columns can be narrower.

1. Move your mouse pointer over the right edge of the first cell, Bay of Islands.
    

2. When the pointer turns to the Resize Horizontal shape, drag to the right.
   
   This makes the next column over smaller. The width of the whole table does not change. You will have to resize the table yourself and then balance the widths of the other columns.

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Size Column Widths Equally

Before you equalize the widths of the columns, you need to get the table back onto the slide.

1. Move your mouse pointer to the right edge of the table until the pointer turns to the Resize Horizontal shape.
    

2. Drag to the left until the table is back onto the slide. Your last cell may be too small to show the number. That's OK for now.
    

3. Drag across all the cells in the first row except the first one.
    
   The selected cells are highlighted.
   If your last cell is very narrow, you may not be able to see the highlight in that cell.
    

4. Click on the Distribute Columns Evenly button on the Tables and Borders Bar. All of the temperature cells are the same width now.
    

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Add Rows: TAB

You have more rows of data than the table has. To add a row at the bottom of the table takes just a simple TAB!

1. Complete the table with the data below.
   Use the TAB key to move from cell to cell. Using TAB when you are in the last cell in a row will move you to the first cell of the next row. Handy!
    Printable copy of the data
    
   Your table is a row short. After you enter the last temperature on the last existing row, just press the TAB key. A whole new row will appear. So easy!
    

Your table is hanging off the bottom of the slide. Not to worry. You will fix that later. You will find it a regular event to fix it, mess it up, and fix it again!

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Add Rows: Menu

This table should really have column labels, otherwise these numbers make no sense. You will now add a row at the top of the table for labels.

1. Right click on a cell in the top row.
    
2. Choose  Insert Rows  from the popup menu.
   A new blank row appears above the row you clicked on.
    
   Alternate Method to Add Rows:
   Table Menu - Click in a cell in a row next to where you want the new row. From the Table menu, select either  Insert Rows Above  or  Insert Rows Below 
    
3. Enter labels for Place, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter as shown in the illustration below.

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Merge Cells

The season labels should apply to two columns, the maximum temperature and the minimum temperature for that season. You can merge the two cells at the top of the columns.

The place names should apply to two rows, temperatures in Celsius and in Fahrenheit. You can merge two cells vertically.

1. Drag to select the cell with the word Spring and the next blank cell.
   
    
2. Click on the Merge Cells button on the Tables and Borders Bar. The label now extends across the space from two cells.
    
3. Repeat to merge two cells for the labels Summer, Fall, and Winter.

   

4. Drag to select the Bay of Islands cell and the blank one below it.
   
    
5. Click on the Merge Cells button on the Tables and Borders Bar. The label now can use the space from two cells vertically.
    
6. Repeat to merge each place name with the blank cell below it. You will not see your highlighting clearly for cells that are off the slide.
    
7. Adjust column widths again: If necessary, drag the right edge of the Places column to the right until the place names fit on one line (except for Bay of Islands). Then make the temperature columns equal widths again by selecting cells and clicking the Distribute Columns Evenly button again.

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Size Row: Drag

Are some of your rows still off the slide? To make the table shorter, you must resize the rows. Resizing rows can be quite frustrating!

The steps below fix two types of problems but your table may be just fine.

1. If a row seems too tall (like the first Queensland row in the illustration above), move the mouse pointer over the bottom edge of the row. When the pointer changes to the Resize Vertical shape, drag up.  PowerPoint will reduce the height to the minimum for the current font size.
    
   Problem: Can't resize extra height
   If there are spaces or line breaks or paragraph breaks in any cell in the row, you can not drag the row to the minimum height for the visible data. You must remove the trouble-causing items first. Unlike in Word, there is no way to show the marks for these! You must be a detective to find them.
    
2. If a row is still not short enough after dragging its border (like the first Wellington row in the illustration above), put your cursor in each cell in the row in turn and drag through the cell, but do not drag into a neighboring cell. Highlighting will appear where there are spaces or line breaks or paragraph breaks.
    
3. Use the DEL or BACKSPACE keys to remove any extra spaces, line breaks, or paragraphs.
    
   When all cells in the row have been fixed, the row height should automatically shrink to fit the font size.
4. If your table is still not quite on the slide, drag the bottom center handle upward until it is.
    
5. Save to your Class disk. [nz-table.ppt]
   How to handle a full Class disk

   

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Size Row Heights Equally

Small differences in row height will be more noticeable when your slides are projected. It is easy to make the rows all the same height once those hidden marks are removed.

1. Select all the cells in a column.
    
2. Click on the Distribute Rows Evenly button on the Tables and Borders Bar. The height inside the table is divided equally among all the rows.

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Formatting

Labels often have a colored background or a different font than the table text.

1. Select the top row of the table.
    
2. Open the palette of colors from the Fill Button on the Tables and Borders Bar.
    
3. Select the teal from the color scheme colors, second from the right.
    
4. With the row still selected, similarly apply White as the font color, using the Font Color button on the Formatting Bar.
    
5. Repeat the actions above for the place names in the first column.

   

   Format Painter will copy the text formatting but it will not copy the background fill.

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Add Column After Formatting

The table is still not completely clear. You need to show which temperatures are in Celsius and which are in Fahrenheit. It will be a tight squeeze, but it can be done!

1. Click in the first cell under Spring, with the number 19 in it.
    
2. From the Table menu on the Tables and Borders Bar, select  Insert Columns to the Left . A new column appears with the same formatting as the column your cursor was in.
    
3. Merge the Places cell with the new cell in the top row.
    

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Insert Symbol

The symbol for degrees, a raised circle like º, is not on the normal English keyboard. You can insert it, and many other special characters, by using the Symbol dialog.

1. In the 2nd cell of the new column, first type  C .
    
2. From the menu select  Insert | Symbol .
    
3. Click on the small raised circle in the middle of the palette of characters.
    
4. Click the Insert button in the dialog. Nothing seems to happen. The dialog remains open in case you want to insert more characters.
   
    
5. Click the Close button in the dialog. Now you can see the degree symbol next to your C.
    
6. In the next cell down type  F° .
   (The º symbol will be in the display of Recently used symbols at the bottom of the dialog.)
    
7. Drag to select the two cells you just typed in.
    
8. Click the Copy button .
    
9. Click in the next blank cell in the column and paste. The data you copied is pasted into the next two cells.
   
    
10. Repeat to copy your Cº and Fº into the remaining blank cells.
     
    Now your temperature data is clearly labeled but the table is off the slide to the right... again!

    

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Adjust Table and Columns

You may need to adjust and readjust the table size and column widths to get the table back onto the slide and the data columns equal again. Such an aggravation! Fixing one problem creates other problems.

1. Adjust the width of the new column until the Cº and Fº just fit onto one line.
   
    
2. If necessary, drag the center handle on the right edge (small white circle) on the right side of the table back to the left until the table is back on the slide. 
    
   This will resize all the columns again and probably make the place names run over onto two lines again. <sigh>
    
3. Resize the Places  and C/F columns, if necessary, so that the text fits on one line (except for Bay of Islands).
    
4. Distribute Columns Evenly: Select the data cells in a row and use the Distribute Columns Evenly button again.
    
5. Save to your Class disk. [nz-table.ppt]
   How to handle a full Class disk

If you insert a special character and the computer that is running your presentation does not have the same font that you used, you may see a completely different character instead. Not all fonts include all of the characters that other fonts have. This is a good reason to embed your fonts with the presentation.

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Insert & Format Text

This slide still does not tell the viewer that these temperatures are maximums and minimums. There's no more room in the table! You can put this information in the Title, but you will have to format carefully to make it all fit.

1. Click in the Title at the end of the word and press the ENTER key.
   The font size of the title drops one size to 40. A new line appears that will use the same formatting. Too tall for a subtitle!
    
2. Change the font size to 24.
    
3. Change the font to Arial.
    
4. Type as the new subtitle  Average Maximums & Minimums 
    
   Note the AutoFit icon at the left of the Title placeholder. AutoFit automatically reduced the font size of the main title when you pressed ENTER so that the text would all fit in the placeholder. Now that you have changed the font size, a larger size would be OK for the main title.
    
5. Hover over the AutoFit icon until an arrow appears. Click the arrow. A menu appears.
    
6. Choose Stop Fitting Text to This Placeholder. 
   
   The text size increases back to 44 for the main title and up one size also for the second line to 28.
    

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Format Table

Depending on exactly how you insert rows and columns, you may have some cell borders that are formatted like the outside table borders. You can reset all of the borders easily.

All those numbers would be easier to read if they were aligned to the right. It's the way we expect numbers to be written.

1. Click in the table and from the Table menu, select  Select Table  command.
   Or click on the table's border.
    
2. Click the arrow to the right of the Borders button on the Formatting bar to open the palette of border options.
    
3. Select All Borders.
   All of the cell borders are reset to the default color, style, and width.
    
4. Drag to select all of the temperature cells (numbers).
    
5. Click on the Align Right button on the Formatting Bar.
    
6. Save to your Class disk. [nz-table.ppt]
   How to handle a full Class disk

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Evaluate

View the slide at Full Screen.
 

What do you think of a table this big? Is it easy to read? Could you accomplish your purpose with less data? How about separate slides for Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures? Would a chart be better?
 
In the next lesson you will add a chart to a slide. Will it be easier? Better?