How to Use Tables in Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher, the desktop design and layout component of the Microsoft Office Suite Professional version, comes with templates to help users quickly start newsletters, greeting cards, brochures, fliers and other materials. Creating tables within the pages of a Microsoft Publisher document is a way to gather and display information for a reader, keeping numbers or other data organized and broken apart from the rest of the text on the page.

Instructions

1

Open Publisher. To use tables in an existing Publisher document, click the "File" tab, select "Open" and browse to the file. Double-click it and scroll to the section or page to add a table. Otherwise, double-click one of the Publisher templates on the "Available Templates" screen, such as the "Blank 8.5 x11" page button.

2

Click the "Insert" tab at the top of the screen. Click the "Table" button on the ribbon/toolbar directly below the tab. Click "Insert Table" to open the small "Create Table" window.

3

Nudge the "Number of rows" and "Number of columns" boxes up or down to set the framework for the table. Click "OK" and the table appears on the Publisher workspace.

4

Adjust the sizing of the table at any time by right-clicking a cell and selecting "Insert." Choose "Insert Left" or "Insert Right" to add a new column to the table or "Insert Above" or "Insert Below" to add a new row to the table.

5

Highlight all of the cells in a single row or column, right-click and select "Format Table." The "Colors and Lines" tab is already defaulted. Pull down the "No Color" menu under the "Fill" section and click a small colored box. Click the "OK" button and all of the cells in the highlighted area have that color shading.

6

Hover the cursor over the options in the "Table Formats" section of the ribbon/toolbar and watch how the colors of the table change to the different preset designs. Click an actual format to commit the style changes.

7

Click into any cell and begin typing to add text. Highlight the text and click the "Home" tab at the top of the screen. Use the options in the "Font" section of the toolbar to change the font, text color and text size of the cell's data.