“Merge cells” and “Split cells” options

In some cases, it sometimes may be useful to “Merge cells”, for example the title of our table, when it appears that this is too long for a cell.

To do this, first select the adjoining cell(s).
In the “Format” contextual tab, click the “Merge Cells” button.
In order to merge cells, there must be at least two adjacent cells which are selected.

To select a cell so that it can be split, click the “Split Cells” button on the “Format” contextual tab.

This opens a dialog window where you can enter the number of columns and the number of rows into which you want the cell to be divided.
Click OK when you’ve finished entering.

Changing Text Direction

To change the direction of text in your table, first select the text and click on the “Text Direction” button from the “Format” contextual tab in the “Ribbon”.

This opens a drop-down menu with four options.
The first option is “Horizontal”, which is the default setting.
The next three seem obvious to me .

If this is not the case, try them all once.
You can always go back to the previous setting by clicking on the “Undo” button in the “Ribbon” or select the “Horizontal” option, which will change the text settings back to the standard direction.

 

Setting row height and column width:

To set a different height or width for the rows and columns, click the mouse pointer on the edge of the cell.
When this changes to a two-headed arrow, click and drag it to the desired height or width.

A second way is by using the two fill-in boxes in the “Cell Size” group in the “Format” contextual tab.

Click the up or down arrows next to the textbox, or type a number in the box.

To set all cells of equal size, click the “Distribute Rows” or “Distribute Columns” buttons respectively.
You find these buttons to the right of the textbox in the “Cell Size” group.

To set the width or height of an the entire table, select the table and click and drag to the edge where four dots are.

Or click the up or down arrows next to the textbox in the “Table Size”.

“Table Styles”
“Table Styles” allow us to format our table in one click.
It is easy and saves us a lot of time.
Just like in ” Excel” and “Word”, we find the “Table Styles” in “PowerPoint” under the “Design” contextual tab in the “Ribbon”.
The cool thing is, the “Table Styles” option also features a “Live Preview” (1).
So all you have to do to see a preview is, move the mouse pointer over the style.
When you are satisfied with a style, click on it in the menu.

With the help of the right arrow, you can navigate between the different styles.
Clicking on the bottom arrow opens a drop-down menu with more “Table Styles”.

You have various options for “Table Styles”, on the right side of the “Ribbon”.
You should try all these. They are really a great way of enhancing your presentation.

I’d upgrade to Powerpoint 2007, just for this new option which is present in all applications of “Office” 2007.

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