Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 10, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365
At times formatting can be rather tedious, particularly if your worksheet is large or presents complex information. Excel includes a very powerful formatting tool that you can use to help with your formatting tasks. This is the table formatting feature, which allows you to format data tables within your worksheet quickly and easily. With the click of a mouse button, you can format an entire table, including setting all formatting attributes and row and column sizes.
To use this feature, simply make sure you select a cell in or around a data table. When you select a cell within the data table, AutoFormat does real good at just selecting the cells that make up the data table. However, if you choose a cell around the data table (within one row or column of the data table), AutoFormat selects the entire data table plus the extra row or column that contains the cell you selected. If you want to format only the data table and no extra rows or columns, you will want to make sure the cell you select is actually within the data table.
Once you have selected a cell (or the entire data table), follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Format As Table dialog box.
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2024-02-12 19:35:03
Tomek
There is more than just formatting that is set-up when you format a range of cells as a table.
- The heading row is added if you uncheck "My table has headers"
- Auto Filter is set for the columns.
- The data range (except header row) is named.
- From outside the table you can refer to cells in the same row as the selected cell using syntax like =+Table2[@Column6]
Some of this may interfere with the way you would use the data otherwise.
If you just want the formatting (alternatively shaded rows etc) you can revert the table back to Range. The formatting will stay as explicit formatting that may, however, take precedence over any future "Format-as-a-Table" action.
Having said that, tables are very useful for data analysis and graphing using slicers and other presentation tools, especially when your data expands.
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