Tables are common elements in Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and the more concise and clear the better. You can build tables from scratch or copy the table from another program and applying a built-in table style makes this route quick and easy. As a bonus, all PowerPoint table styles are based on Office themes, so maintaining consistency is almost effortless.
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In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to quickly style table data copied from a Microsoft Excel Table with built-in table styles in PowerPoint. The easiest way to get a clean, simple design is to start with a PowerPoint table style and remove the layouts you don’t want or add the layouts you do want. Starting with a ready-made style is faster than starting from scratch and provides opportunities to explore.
I use Microsoft 365 Desktop on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use earlier versions of PowerPoint. PowerPoint for the web supports built-in table styles. Yyou can download the demo file for this PowerPoint tutorial.
Apply a built-in table design in PowerPoint
PowerPoint has several built-in table designs that you can apply with a quick click. These styles contain combinations of formatting elements, such as shading, borders, font colors, and more. Applying a style requires two clicks: Click on the table to select it and click on the style to apply it. The result is a professional table ready for show in seconds. They are great if you have little or no time to devote to applying individual sizes for a custom look.
Image A displays data copied from a Microsoft Excel table to a blank PowerPoint slide. Starting with existing data is faster and easier than creating a PowerPoint table manually. When you copy the table data, PowerPoint applies the built-in Medium Style 2 – Accent 1 style. In this case, the copied results are presentable as they are and you may not do anything else.
Image A
If you want to seriously reduce formatting, here’s how to choose the No Style, No Grid table style:
1. Select the table.
2. Click the Table Design contextual tab.
3. In the Table Styles group, click the first style thumbnail, No Style, No Grid (Figure B).
Figure B
This style is the closest thing to no style at all, but it could also be exactly what you need if you want to start from scratch. If you applied the style in step #3, press Ctrl + Z to remove it so that you can work with the original copied table in the following example.
When applying a style, PowerPoint tries to match data with styles. For example, if PowerPoint thinks the copied data has a header row or a header column, it displays styles with those elements. In our case, this did not happen, even though the Excel table has a header. Fortunately this is not a problem.
If PowerPoint doesn’t recognize a header row or column, do the following before applying a style:
1. Select the table.
2. Click the Table Design contextual tab.
3. In the Table Style Options group (far left), check Header Row.
As you can see in Figure C, PowerPoint adds formatting to the header row to clarify position. Next, the Table Styles options now display row headers. In addition, PowerPoint uses the current style format, Medium Style 2 — Accent 1, on the header row.
Figure C
Now that PowerPoint defaults to header row styles, click the Gallery’s More button to see what PowerPoint has to offer. Hover over a thumbnail (Figure D), and Live Preview will display that style in the selection table, making it much easier to make the right choice from the first choice. If you’re in a rush, just pick a style and go.
Figure D
Now let’s move on to customizing a built-in style.
Customize a built-in table style in PowerPoint
If you have the time, you can use a built-in style and customize it. To demonstrate I applied Medium Style 3 – Accent 6 to the table in Digits E, which you can tell is sharp, clean and ready to use; however, you may prefer horizontal row lines to help viewers stay on the same page.
Digits E
Add horizontal lines to the table in Digits Edo the following:
1. Select the cells instead of selecting the whole table as you did in previous examples.
2. Click the Table Design contextual tab. At this point you can see that the table has borders, you just can’t see them because they are white (Figure F). If you applied a hatch layout, you would see all the borders.
Figure F
3. The fastest way to get the bottom line is to use no line at all, but dashed rows. To do this, while the cells are still selected, click the Striped Rows option in the Table Style Options. Although PowerPoint applies a theme color, it is a light pink (Figure G); luckily you can change your choice quickly.
Figure G
4. Click the Gallery’s More button in the Table Styles group. The applied style is in the third row of the Medium section. There are two other striped styles that also have a header in the green column. However, there is nothing you want to apply.
5. Look in the Light section. Light Style 2 – Accent 6 is what you want, so click on it (figure H).
figure H
As you can see there was a row-line layout, although we made a small detour before finding it. Once you’re familiar with all the ways to customize a built-in table style, you won’t be making such a beginner’s choice. On the other hand, it was just a click and that was my point to steer you in that direction. It’s easy to see how customizing a built-in style is easy and fast.
